12-19 




, ' I . ■' _ ^. 












V: i;' 





Class J^JALt-- 



SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 



THE MEXICAN CALENDAR STONE, 

By Philipp J. J. Valentini, Ph. D. 
(From the German.) 

TERRA COTTA FIGURE FROM ISLA MUJERES, 

NORTHEAST COAST OF YUCATAN. 

AKCH^OLOGICAL COMMUNICATION ON YUCATAN, 

By Dk. Augustus Le Plokgeon. 

NOTES ON YUCATAN, 

By Mrs. Alice D. Le Plongeon. 



COMPILED AND ARRANGED 



By STEPHEN SALISBUEY, 

// 




"WORCESTER: , 
PRESS OF CHARLES HAMJLTON. 
J 8 79. 



' \ 






VilTU THE RESPECTS OF 






Prom Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, of April 24 and 
October 21, 1878. 



-> PitlVATELT PRINTED, 



(T 




>^ 



COIS^TEI^TS. 



Page. 
HE Mexican CaleIndar Stone, By JPhilipp J. J. VaUntini, Ph. D. 5 
Introductory Note to Vortrag, By Committee of Publi- 
cation 6 

Biographical Note 27 

Terra CotTa Figure from Isla Mujeees, By Stephen Salisbury, jr. 31 

" HisTORiA DE Yucatan" . (Note.) 53 

"Mapa de Yucatan" (Note.) 53 

Archaeological Communication on Yucatan, By Dr. Augustus 

Le Plongeon 57 

Notes on Yucatan, By Mrs. Alice D. Le Plongeon ....*.. 69 

ILLUSTEATIONS. 

The Mexican Calendar Stone Frontispiece. 

Shrine and Terra Cotta Figures, from Isla Mujeres and British 

Honduras 32 

Plan of Southernmost Point oe Isla Mujeres, showing the 

position of Eulns * . * 37 

Plan of Shrine at South Point of Isla Mujeres .... * 42 
Statue called Chaac-Mol, from a Photograph taken for the 

Rev'd Edward E. Hale 57 

Mural Tracing, from Chichen-Itza, Yucatan 59 

Sculptured Figure on a Sapote Lintel, at Chichen-Itza, 

Yucatan 65 

Parque Hidalgo, at Mj&rida, Yucatan 69 

Dock and Wharf at Progreso, Port of Yucatan 71 

CUSTOM-HoUSE AT PrOGRESO 72 

A Plant of Henequen (Agave Sisalensis) 73 

A Tonkos (an implement used by the Indians to separate the 

hemp filament) 74 

Government House, at Merida, Yucatan 76 • 

Indian Hut in Yucatan, with Indians at work . 79 

Public Square at Izamal. Yucatan 81 

Casa del Adelantado Montejo, at Merida, Yucatan .... 90 • 

City Hall, at Merida, Yucatan 91 

Cathedral, at Meirida, Yucatan 92 

House of Senor Dario Galera, at Misrida, Yucatan .... 94 ■ 
Court- Yard of House of Dona Bruna Galera de Casares, 

AT M6rida, Yucatan . 95 

Mestiza Servants in Yucatan, making Tortillas 96 . 



THE MEXICAN CAJpENDAH STONE. 

By Philipp J. J. v alentini, Ph. D. 



[Proceedings of American Antiquarian Society. April 24, 1878.] 



Note by the Committee of Publication. 

We are indebted to Stephen Salisburt, Jr., Esq., for a translation 
of Doctor Valentini's lecture on the "Mexican Calendar Stone," 
"Vortrag uber den Mexicanisdien Calendar- Stein, gehalten von Prof. 
Ph. Valentini, am 30. April 1878, in New York, U. S. A., vor dem 
Deutsch ges. wissenschaftlichen Verein"), and also for copies of a 
heliotype of the stone itself. The views of the lecturer, as is the 
case with all discussions in the publications of the society, are left to 
rest on their own merits. The matter is cognate to the recent investi- 
gations in the central portions of our continent, to which attention has 
been drawn by various communications from Mr. Salisbury, and is 
clearly and ably set forth by the lecturer. If the system of interpreta- 
tion applied by Prof. Valentini to the "Calendar Stone" may not be 
wholly peculiar to himself, but has also been substantially advanced by 
Senor Alfredo Chavero, a learned Mexican scholar (see "The Nation," 
New York, August 8th, and September 19th, 1878), the fact that two 
learned inquirers concur in adopting the same conclusion respecting the 
nature of the monument, and similar principles for the interpretation of 
its inscriptions, only gives additional weight to their opinions. The 
collateral estimate, by Professor Valentini, of the real character and pur- 
pose of Bishop Lauda's phonetic alphabet, is plausible, and very likely 
to prove to be correct. It is a view that removes all obscurity from the 
dubious claim of an absolute key to the literal rendering of Mexican 
hieroglyphics. The aim of the missionary bishop to construct an 
alphabet from signs familiar to the natives, which might enable him to 
prepare religious manuals for their benefit, would be no more than has 
been attempted by other Catholic teachers— for example, among the 
Indians of Nova Scotia, as described by Father Vetromile. 



G 

Impressed, as we are, by the profound philosopliy of Judge Morgan's 
essays upon Indian institutions, civil and political, and much as we 
admire the acute and exhaustive studies, among authorities, of Mr. 
Bandelier upon "the warlike customs and organization of the Mexican 
tribes," and " the distribution and tenure of lands, and the customs 
with respect to inheritance among the ancient Mexicans," we cannot 
ignore the existence of indications of mysterious advances in science, 
and a mystical archajological lore, possibly extending to remote periods 
of time, which remain unexplained and unaccounted for by their pro- 
cesses of reasoning. There is something for which the theories of 
these writers do not afford a means of solution. It is exactly this that 
has excited and bewildered the imaginations of explorers long before 
Brasseur de Bourbourg and Dr. Le Plongeon, and will continue to 
bewilder others till its nature and significance are more clearly under- 
stood. The successes of Du Chaillu, of Schliemann, and of Stanley, ai'e 
remar'Kable instances of triumphant results in cases where enthusiasni 
had been supposed to lack the guidance of wisdom. If earnest men are 
willing to take the risks of personal research in hazardous regions, or 
exercise their ingenuity and their scholarship in attempting to solve 
historical or archaiological problems, we may accept thankfullj' the infor- 
mation they give, without first demanding in all cases unquestionable 
evidence or absolute demonstration. 

S. F. Haven, Chairman. 



YORTRAG OF DR. YALENTINL 



Gentlemen. — Will you give your attention to a lecture, which 
you have kindly invited me to deliver, though I am not a member of 
your society? The lecture will treat of certain studies to which 1 
have devoted myself for a long time — the so-called Mexican hieroglyph- 
ics, and especially a monument which is known as the Mexican 
Calendar Stone. 

My opinion of the circumstances to which this monument of old 
Mexican art owes its origin, the explanation of the object, I might say 
of the subject, which the artist has undertaken to I'epresent, — the 
description and meaning of the hieroglyphic symbols which appear in 
detail, of their combination in a harmonious whole, and finally also the 
establishing of a system by which the deciphering of them is made pos- 



sible, will demand your time and patience; but by this detailed investi- 
gation we shall finally arrive at the desired result. It will be demon- 
strated that this so-called Calendar Stone did not, as has hitherto been 
supposed, serve the Mexicans for highly scientific purposes, to wit : 
Astronomy, but for very profane purposes, for human sacrifices, with 
whose blood they thought to conciliate the anger of their gods. The 
rich sculptures with which the disc is ornamented will prove to be no 
hieroglyphics concerning the days of the passage of the sun thi'ough 
the zenith of the City of Mexico, or through equinoxial or solstitial 
points ; but I shall be able to demonstrate to you that the artist has suc- 
ceeded in these sculptures in bringing before our eyes a very abstract 
theme, namely, that of the division of time, and indeed that peculiar 
division of time which existed among the people of Anahuac before the 
Spanish conquest. This is a brief outline of what I propose to discuss 
in this lecture. 

In a lecture which touches so closely the culture and civilization of 
ancient Mexico, a glance at that culture and civilization would be 
desirable, but for lack of time I must deny myself that pleasure. I 
shall call to your minds your recollection of the accounts of the Con- 
quest, of all the impressions you have gathered and retained from your 
acquaintance with Mexican antiquities, paintings and curiosities. But 
as I have spoken of this monument as one upon which the divisions of 
time of this nation are said to be engraved, and as this representation 
and form of hieroglyphic symbols has been suggested, I consider it my 
duty to make some observations for the better understanding of this 
particular form of writing. 

The Mexican hieroglyphics are not to be I'ead in the same manner as 
those of Egypt or Assyria, by sound. If you look upon a Mexican 
picture-sheet, and see a sculpture, a group of connected ornaments 
made up of human heads, animals, flowers, etc., and see them projected 
either in a horizontal or vertical line, do not necessarily conclude that 
each ornament in a group is a letter, the group itself a word, and the 
union of many or few of such groups a sentence, the meaning of which 
can be di^clphered by the aid of the alphabet-key. The Mexicans pos- 
sessed a language very highly developed; they had expressions for each 
idea, abstract and concrete, and could convey them with wonderfully 
subtle shades, full of feeling and rich in thought; but to separate the 
human voice into vowel and consonant sounds, and to depict each indi- 
vidual one by an arbitrary mark, symbol or letter, and then to form of 
these letters the sounded word, and to place each syllable one after the 
other as we-do in writing, was to them an unknown art. This has 
been lately controverted. It is claimed that a Yucatan alphabet has 
been found, that a yucatan picture-book, — the so-called Codex Tro — 
has been thereby interpreted. A gigantic piece of nonsense has thus 
come to the surface. It is claimed that the Codex is a description 
of the Yucatecos from the glacial period, of the gradual elevation of the 



chain of the Antilles, and like ante-diluvian events. This Yucatan 
alphabet is nothing more than an attempt by a missionary bishop, Diego 
de Landa, to teach the natives their own language phonetically, in our 
manner, but with their own symbols. I will not follow this subject 
further, but I am willing to give more detailed explanations hereafter if 
it is desirable. 

The Mexicans, as we have said, used no phonetic system, but had an 
expressive picture-writing. When they desired to communicate with 
each other, they took the brush and color and depicted the most 
characteristic scenes of an eveut on paper. In these representations 
the fancy of the painter had full play. Each of several artists would 
depict the same event in a diflerent manner, though there wei'e certain 
limits to be observed. In expressing the various and daily recur- 
ring human dealings they bound themselves to an entirely distinct, con- 
ventional method of fixed form. For example, if they would convey the 
idea of going, we fluil alwa3's footsteps leading from one person to an- 
other oy to a house. If it concerns sjyeaking, there flies always from the 
mouth of the speaker a flake, representing the breath ; when singing, the 
flake is larger, longer, and in a certain measui'e divided. If they spoke 
of a certain person whose name was " Blackfoot " they painted close to 
his head his name in hieroglyphics, — a foot marked with black dots. If 
he was called " Water-yiose" they depicted a face over which a little 
stream of blue water was flowing. If the conquest of a city appeared in 
their annals, the typical picture of a conquest was a house under whose 
crumbling roof a triple flame w^as applied ; but in order to show of what 
city or town they spoke, its coat-of-arms was painted close to it. These 
coats-of-arms showed in picture their names, and these names were 
always derived from some peculiarity growing out of their locality, or 
other prominent circumstance. Most of the cities were located on 
rising ground, for protection against inundation and the winds. On 
that account man\'^ of the names of cities end in tepeqtte, which signifies 
mountain. If there grew upon the mountain many Zapote trees, and if 
it was called for this reason Zapotcpeqne, the coat-of-arms is a moun- 
tain on which a Zapote tree is painted. If many quails were caught on 
the mountain there was represented the head of a quail. 

These brief indications will be suflicieut to explain that the so-called 
Mexican hieroglyphics were nothing but pictures of natural objects, or 
if collected in groups, were representations of scenes and events of their 
social and historical life. 

To arrive at an understanding, these Mexican paintings should give 
us as little trouble as if we had one of our own ordinary picture-sheets 
before us, or any illustratiou torn out of a book, from whose particulars 
we had to guess the text which belonged to it. The difliculty of under- 
standing it is as follows : At first sight, our unaccustomed eye is un- 
favorably impi-essed ; the reason is that the Mexican painters did not 
draw like the practiced artist of to-day. They drew, so to speak, like 



9 

a highly-gifted but untaught child, without regard to the distribu- 
tiou of light and shadow, in mere outlines, in lines sharply defined ; but 
all the main properties of the objects are vividly portrayed, and often 
exaggerated to caricature. The eye very soon pardons this deformity. 
We find this method of representation quite to the purpose, for in the 
great similarity of objects it never leaves a doubt as to what is intended. 
The peculiar difficulty in interpreting the pictures is that we may not 
know at all the objects represented. We may not know them, in the 
first place, for the reason that such objects, to-day, have entirely gone 
out of use. To this class belong many pictures of their gods and 
goddesses, lares and periates, but especially the entire paraphernalia of 
their complicated heathen worship. Secondly, the pictures maybe unin- 
telligible to us because they represent objects which belong only to 
those countries, zones, and nationalities where they exist : As for 
instance, certain tropical animals and plants, their utensils for cooking, 
for art, and for labor. Who, for instance, would recognize the coat-of- 
arms which we have mentioned above, of Zapotex)eque, without having 
previously seen the particular structure of the tree, of its trunk, of 
its leaves, its flowers and fruits, or if he had seen it in a modern repre- 
sentation, would have recognized that Mexican style of representation? 
Thirdly, pictures for certain abstract ideas find a place here. Who 
would know, without being told, that the representation of the idea of 
a year was a ribbon or rope wound up in form of a knot? In this 
case, you see, the picture stands not only for the object itself, but for 
something else which men have been accustomed to associate with its 
form. The picture is indeed only a symbol. Let these few examples 
suffice; I must go on. 

In overcoming the difficulties I have mentioned, and which we meet 
in the explanation of every Mexican picture-sheet, we have valuable 
assistance provided. In order to convey to the monarch, Charles V., a 
picture of the history of the lately conquered people, their customs, 
their resources, and the number of the newly acquired cities, Mendoza, 
the first Viceroy of Mexico, created a commission of three Indian 
painters. One was directed to picture the entire political history of 
the Mexican people, from the time of their immigration from the north 
to the execution of the last king, Quauhtemotzin, and to present it 
exactly as it was pictured in their annals. The second was directed to 
picture all the cities, or their emblems, and with each the emblems of 
the products which they sent to the metropolis in payment of their 
semi-annual tribute. The third was directed to represent the Mexican 
method of education of both sexes year by year up to 15 years of age, to 
show how the one was taught to be a good mechanic or soldier, and the 
other to be a skilful housewife. To each of these pictures an explana- 
tory text was attached. We have therefore in this so-called Mendoza 
Codex, a political, economical, statistical and social history of the 
nation ; but the most important fact is that care was taken to connect a 



10 

particular explanation with each individual figure, and of these there 
are upwards of a thousand. We have, therefore, explanations of 
nearly a thousand iMexican objects, exactly as the Mexicans pre- 
sented them, and as nil these objects belong to political, statistical and 
social life, we may be sure that we shall meet them again in each 
picture-sheet which we may examine. Their recognition will be the 
easier, as there is no essential change made by the artist in regard to 
the once-established outline, form or color. We have, besides, another 
authentic source of interpretation of Mexican hieroglyphic pictures, 
in the so-called Codex Vaticanus, a picture book, which was prepared 
by some new Mexican magnate of the church, for the Pope, like 
that of Mendoza for the P^mperor. The Codex Vaticanus is a description 
of Mexican cosmogony, mythology, and the calendar. It is painted in 
brighter colors than the former, and, like that, each figure is accompa- - 
uied by a special interpretation. In these we possess, from the earliest 
time of the Spanish conquest, when a generation of Mexican painters 
was yet alive, an entirely authentic key for the understanding of their 
conventional mode of expressing both objects and ideas. Besides these 
otlicial interpretations, we have many other private ones. Later archa3- 
ologists, of Mexican and Spanish origin, collectors and connoisseurs, 
have supplied us with many excellent works upon this subject, and have 
settled decisively the idea and meaning of a great number of the 
figures. 

I have thus pointed out the chief sources for the study and under- 
standing of Mexican hieroglv.phics. Much still remains to be said. 
Taken by itself, no one of these picture pi-oblems can be explained 
successfully without a complete acquaintance with the political history 
of this people, and with their mythology, and without a profound reading 
of all the Spanish chroniclers, and especially the reports of the early 
missionaries, who, in order to accomplish their object, the conversion 
of the natives, were first obliged to become familiar with their mode of 
expressing their feelings by symbols or pictures. These missionaries 
have not, so far as we know, drawn a single picture, but their descrip- 
tions of the new and curious objects which came before their astonished 
eyes, may aid us in understanding the pictures themselves, for they are 
often so striking that we are sometimes unexpectedly able to find the 
corresponding picture upon some sculpture or painted sheet. 

After this summary description of what Mexican hieroglyphics sig- 
nify, and the sources where we must look for their interpretation, per- 
mit me, as a trial of nij'^ system, to interpret with you such a picture 
problem. As I mentioned before, this will not be undertaken with a 
painted picture, but with a sculpture, whose richness otters us an abun- 
dance of matter for investigation. 

I will, in the first place, inform you in what year, by whose order, and 
upon what particular festival occasion, this stone disc was first made, 
where it was buried, and when it was afterwards recovered and brought 



11 

to light, and what people thought it signified. (The picture which you 
see here is an exact copy of the best photograph at hand of the Mexican 
Calendar Stone). 

The disc is wrought from an enormous slab of basaltic porphyry. It 
stands out in relief from the surface of the block, 9 inches. The diame- 
ter is 11 feet 8 inches. 

It was, according to our reckoning, about the year 1478, or nearly 
four hundred years ago, and only two j^ears before the death of the then 
reiuning king of Mexico, Axayacatl, that he was reminded by the high 
priest of the State of a vow that he had once made ; who spoke as follows : 
— (And I will give the long text of the Indian writer, Tezozomoc, in the 
fewest words.)* "The building of the large sacrificial pyramid which j'^ou 
have undertaken approaches its end. You vowed to decorate it with 
a beautiful work, in which the Preserver of Mankind, Huitzilopochtli, 
could take pleasure. Time presses ; do not delay the work any longer. 
' I think,' said the king, ' t,o replace the sacrificial stone which my 
father once devoted to the God of the Sun, with a new one. Let that 
be laid aside, but carefully preserved. I will give the laborers provi- 
sions and clothing that they may select tlie most proper stone from the 
quarries, and I will send the sculptor gold, cocoa, and colored cloth, 
that he may engrave a picture of the sun as it is surrounded by our 
other great gods.' So the workmen went out and quarried the stone, 
laying it upon rollers, and 50,000 strong men rolled it along. But as it 
was upon the biidge of Xoloc, the beams gave way, the bridge broke in 
pieces, the stone fell into the water, and no one dared to remove it from 
the bottom of the lake. Then the king was angry and said : ' Let them 
build a new bridge, with double beams and planks, and bring a new 
stone from the quarries of Cuyoacan. Let them bring a second stone 
here out of which a trough may be made to receive the blood which 
flows as expiation from the sacrificial stone.' " When the stone had been 
quarried and prepared, and had been rolled over the bridge in good con- 
dition, there was a feast of joy. Here follows a description of bloody 
combats, the praise of the master, whom the king visited in his work- 
shop, and the report that the stone liad been completed bj' order of the 
king, with a picture of the sun in the middle, surrounded by the other 
deities. Again a bloody thanksgiving, celebrated for the completion of 
the trough, is mentioned. "Then was the question asked, how should 
the immense stone be placed on the pyramid ? After it was placed in 
position, we read that it was sunk in the surface of an altar. The altar 
is of stone, of the height of 8 men, and of the length of 20 cubits. 
Before it the trough was placed. Then follows the description of a 
bloody festival which was held for the dedication of this sacrificial slab, 
and upon it thousands of victims were slain. The king, as chief sacri- 



*Kiii.gsborougIi's Mexican Antiquities, Vol. IX., Cap. 47-9. H. Ternaux-Compans, 
Paris, 1853. Vol. I., Cap. 54, page 287-293. 



12 

ficer, on the first clay killed a huiulrcd victims with his own hand, 
drank of their blood, and ate of tlieir flesh; and so arduous was his 
labor, and so much did he eat, that he became sick, and soon after died. 
He liad only time to have his portrait sculptured upon the surface of the 
rock of Chapultepeque, according to the custom of Mexican kings. So 
much for Tezozoraoc's report. That the sacrificial stone here men- 
tioned is identical with this picture, I will, in addition to the descrip- 
tion, bring a still further proof. (See picture of the pyramid in llamu- 
sio's collection).* 

No doubt this stone served for all their bloody sacrifices up to the 
year 1521. In that year the Spaniards captured the city, and Cortez 
ordered the destruction of the entire pyramid, and that the canals of 
the city be filled with its fragments. Neither Cortez nor Bernal Diaz, 
nor any of the chroniclers of the conquerors, make mention of the 
existence of any such monument as the afore-described stone. They 
did not undertake its destruction ; nay, they even placed it in the mar- 
ket-place, on exhibition, where the pyramid once stood. f This we have 
from a missionary chronicler named Duran, between the years 1551 and 
1569, who says he ha.s always seen it in the same place, and that there 
had been so much talk about it, among Spaniards and natives, that 
finally his eminence the Bishop of Montufar took umbrage, and ordered 
its burial in the place where it stood, in order that the memory of the 
infamous actions that had been perpetrated upon it might be removed 
from sight. Until the year 1790, no one of the many writers on 
Mexican antiquities has made the least mention of it. In that year the 
repair of the pavement of the market-place was undertaken. In a deep 
excavation the laborers struck a slab of stone, which gave such a hol- 
low sound from the stroke of the iron, that they thought a treasure- 
vault might be concealed under it. When they lifted the slab, they 
found no treasure vault, but were astonished when they beheld on one 
side the spectacle of this incomparable treasure of ancient Mexican art. 
The clergy wished it to be again buried, but the art-loving and liberal 
Viceroy, Kevillagigedo, ordered it to be exposed. He caused it to be 



* Ratnusio's Viaggi, Giuntl, 1556, Tom. III., page 306. 

tSeuor Alfredo Cliavero, of the Liceo Hidalgo, of Mexico, in a pamphlet written on the 
Calendar Stone, (Calendario Azteca, Ensayo Archxologico por A. Chavero, Secretario per- 
petuo de le Sociedad de Geograjia y Estadistica de Mexico ; Secunda Edicion, Mexico, 1876), 
has the merit of having first discovered this interesting fact. 

A strong proof was thereby given of the identity of our Calendar Stone with that stone- 
disc of the sun, which King Axayacatl ordered to be inscribed in the table of the altar placed 
on the platform of the great pyramid. For, if the existing generation of conquerors, 
according to Duran, recognized the disc exhibited in 1560, in the plaza of Mexico, as that on 
which Indians, as well as Spanish captives, were sacrificed, and, further, if the Bishop Mon- 
tufar ordered this disc to be buried on the same spot (the plaza of the city of Mexico), from 
which in 1790 It was dug out again, there can be no longer any doubt as to the fact that tlie 
discs described by Tezozomoc and by Duran, are one aud the same, i. e. The Calendar Stone. 

Senor Chavero's reference is: Historia de las Indiasde la Nueva Espana, by Padre Duran, 
Edicion de Jose Ramirez. Mexico, 1867. Tom. I,, pag. 272. 



13 

built in on the southerly side of the cathedral, in the ashler-work, of one 
of its towers, so that all could see it, and it is to be seen there to-day. 

No one had then the least idea that such a stone had ever existed, or 
for what purposes it might have served. The archaeologists said at 
once that it must have some connection with the worship of the sun. 
They thought the shield in the centre represented the ancient sun-god, 
and while they found the always well-known twenty pictures of the 
days of the Mexican month engraved about it in a circle, they gave to 
the disc the name by which it is still known, the Mexican Calendar 
Stone. 

A professor of astronomy and mathematics, Don Leon y Gama, who 
was much devoted to Mexican antiquities, and who had at the same time 
a small work on Mexican Chronology in preparation, was officially 
requested to furnish an interpretation of these rare hieroglyphics. He 
accepted the commission, and produced, after twenty months of study 
aud writing, a work in wliich he maintained the singular idga that the 
disc had served the ancient Mexicans as an astronomical instrument. 
He had deciphered Ave hieroglyphics upon it, of which one represents 
the day upon which the sun goes in its course from the north, another 
the day on which it goes back in its course from the south through the 
zenith of the Capital of Mexico, the third and fourth hieroglyphics 
depict the two days of the passage of the sun through the point of 
equal day aud night, the fifth is a hieroglyphic of the day of the 
Summer solstice. As this theory proceeded on the supposition that the 
Mexicans must have been acquainted with the globular form of the 
earth, with our divisions by paiallels and meridians, and our entirely 
modern solar system (an assertion of which we have positive proof to 
the contrary) ; and still further, as Gama could not furnish the main 
proof,— to identify the tive hieroglyphics, or to prove that they appear 
at all in any painting or sculpture— and as no authentic interpretation 
could be given in corroboration of his assertion, this strange astronom-, 
ical conception of the monument was assailed on its first publication in 
a book by his own countrymen. He, himself, was requested by the 
scientific men of the city to make a public defence of his theory, and as 
he did not make his appearance, he aud his theory were held in con- 
tempt. His description of the disc is inaccurate and in many places 
entirely false, superficial, and full of imperfections. He disposes of two 
of the zones on the disc by the simple remark that they represent, the 
one the pJiotosphere of the sun, and the other the Milky Way in the trop- 
ical heavens ! Gama is up to to-day the first and only interpreter of this 
monument.* In spite of the want of proof in his assertions and of the 



* WliUe this translation into'Englisli was In preparation, The Nation, New York, August 8, 
1878, prints an article, in wliich the claim is made that Senor A. Cliavero, in the above-men- 
tiiined pamphlet, has given us an interpretation of this Aztecan monument ; that therefore, my 
claim to be the first interpreter of it, after Gama, is a mistaken assumption, and finally, that 

3 



u 

ridiculous nature of liis conception, he lis well as the inonnment will 
continue to be quoted by liiose who are interested to establish tlie supe- 
rior culture of the ancient Mexicans. 

The artist, as I said before, has selected as the subject of this altar- 
plate, the division of tinae. How he has handled his subject exhaust- 
ively in the symbolic art manner of his nation on this stone disc I will 
endeavor to explain to you, and I hope by convincing proofs. I wish to 
make you acquainted with the system of the Mexican division of time 
as described by the Spanish missionaries and other writers, all of whom 
are corroborative of each other. 

The Mexican year was a solar year of 860 days. The saying was that 
one of their oldest astronomers, Cipac by name, in order to bring the 
days of the solar year to a correct number, had added to an old calendar 
of 3G0 days, the last five days. Each day had a particular name except 
these last five, which had no names ; they were held as uameless, unfor- 
tunate days, and were called nemotemi. This year of 365 days was 
divided into two parts. The larger and first portion, of 260 days, was 
called meztli pohnalli, or moon reckoning, mez, moon, and puhnalli 
reckoning. The smaller and latter portion, of 100 or 105 days, was 
called tonal-pohualli, or sun reckoning. Besides this division they 
divided the year into 18 months, and gave to each month 20 days, and 
these 360 days were the foundation of their reckoning. Each month of 
20 days had a subdivision of four weeks of five days. A certain 
number of years, 52, made what the Spanish writers erroneously called 



It is even particular and striking to what an extent the evidence of the learned Mexican scholar 
agrees, if not verbatim, at least substantially, wiili the contents of my Vortrag. 

My answer to these remarks has appeared In The Nation, of Sept. 19, 1S78. The writer of 
tlie article, broufiht by tliis answer to an absolute silence regarding tliat latter imprudent 
and even odious insinuation, insists, Iiowever, on liis statement tliat Senor Chavero has 
given an interpretation, and lias his reply printed at the foot of my answer. 

'J'his reiterated ciaim, I .im forced to declare, again, is unjusttlied. I maintain what is 
expressed in the Vortrag. Senor Chavero, in oontinualion of liis very interesting pages 
on the history of the Calendar cul in the stone, attempts, in a few additional pages, 
to explain only a certain set of the lileroglyphics which claimed his main attention; 
as also A. von Humboldt did when he explained those engraved in the zone of the 20 days. 
Neither of these scholars, however, has gone over the whole ground of the monument, 
and endeavored, as I did, to prove that the whole sum of the multifarious symbols will 
turn out to be, so to speak, a text, the purport of which is a full representation of all 
those symbols which the ancient Mexicans used for tlieir peculiar division of time, and which 
vi^as chosen by the sculptor as an appropriate subject for the celebration of the lapse of the 
cycle in the year 1479 A. D. 

Now, if A. von Humboldt has given only a fragmentary interpretation of the stone, and 
never thought to call himself its Interpreter, nor has been called so by others, and neither 
Albert Gallatin nor Braiitz Mayer, two scholars who have written largely on the same 
subject, have pretended or were pretended to be interpreters of the monument, I do not 
see why Mr. Chavero, under equal conditions as the aforesaid authors, should be called 
so, — unless the writer of the article, in order to suit his purposes, intended to force upon 
the term "interpretation" a meaning different from that which science has always given 
it. To all these gentlcnicn due merit is given in a larger tiealise which I intend to publish, 
'J'he restrictions of a public lecture foi bade more elaborate literary references. 



15 

a Mexican century,— ?(« siijlo. Each year of this period or cycle of 
52 years had its particuhir name. When this cycle ended, the years of 
the succeeding cycle bore the same names. Finally, the Mexicans 
reckoned according to the periods of creation, of which they had four. 
The world was, according to their tradition, destroyed by the sun, and 
l..)i;r times was again reconstructed by it. The first destruction was by 
w;.r, the second by hurricane, the third by rain, and the fourth by a 
general flood. The traditions of the duration of these periods of crea- 
tion vary. Tlie name of the year of creation is always the same; they 
called it a sacrificial knife,—/ Tecpatl. This year, / Tecpatl, forms the 
basis of all their chronological calculations. The Mexican system of 
the division of time is exhausted by this statement. Allow me now to 
make mention of the day which the Mexican astronomers are said to 
have interpolated after a lapse of four years, in order to make the 
length of the solar year more correct. This assertion, first made by 
modern writers, is not upheld by a single authentic source. No Indian, 
HO Spanish writer, no picture, no sculpture, gives any justification of 
such an interpretation. This assertion is not even fortunate enough to 
belong to the class of well-grounded suppositions ; it belongs to the 
class of learned fictions. 

The symbolic figures for the representation of each of these divisions 
of time we shall find expressed on this disc, and indeed engraved upon 
the zones, which are always laid concentrically around each other. 
Let us look first at the centre shield, which is formed by these 
zones. 

A face looks out of it, ornamented with all imaginable decorations. It 
has a neck-chain, ear-rings from the middle of which feathers depend; 
from the under-lip hangs down a tentetl, lip-stone, set with jewels; the 
forehead is surrounded by a fillet on which are two large jewels, and in 
the middle is a hieroglyphic symbol. If I do not mistake, the hair is 
represented braided in skeins. If we analyze the small symbol on the 
forehead, we shall find the name of the sun-god, Atonatiuh, expressed 
on it. Here, the tub with water in it, and drops springing out, is the 
Mexican symbol for water, atl, in the Naliuatl language of the natives. 
Above this water rises a disc whose margin is set with four small cir- 
cles. This is the emblem of the disc of the sun when seen in connec- 
tion with other objects. The sun was commonly called tonatiuh. If the 
sun-god was intended in his quality of destroyer of the world, and 
particularly as destroyer by the last great flood, this was expressed by 
tlie prefix All, and both words were blended together and called 
Atovatiuh. In view of this explanation of the name, it is easy to 
understand why the artist engraved the face with the lineaments of 
extreme old age. The eye-sockets are deep-sunken, deep wrinkles 
appear upon the forehead and the cheeks. The chin and jaws are lean 
and emaciated. The artist did not wish to represent the god as a bril- 
liant constellation, but as the creator, the giver, the divider of time ; as 



16 

tlie very oldest being that ever existed. We shall find him now sur- 
rouuded by all the symbols of time. 

It is easy to recognize the above mentioned symbols of the day as 
expressed in 16 hours. It is evident that the four larger pointers 
indicate sun-i'ising, meridian, sun-set and midnight. The subdivisions 
of 8 hours are mtirked by the smaller pointers, while the Ifi hours are 
indicated by the small towers at corresponding distances. Their loca- 
tion at exactly equal distances, favors the assumption that they were 
also employed for dividers, as they occur on every picture or sculp- 
ture extant of the sun's disc. But I am unable to tell you why our 
artist and all his predecessors, instead of further subdividing by 
pointed indices, have chosen the figure of this small tower. 

Let us turn now to the symbols of the 20 days of the Mexican month. 
You will not find them in the broad zone which surrounds the centre 
shield, but in the next and smaller one, which is composed of 20 small 
houses. You will find the picture for the first day, called Cipac, at the 
left of the apex of the pointer of the diadem, as we shall always find the 
series of days running towards the left. The bristling head of some 
nameless monster signifies the priest-mask of the astronomer who, as the 
story goes, interpolated the five days to the 360 of the old sun reckoning. 
They thus gave to the oldest of their calendar heroes the first place in 
the circle of days. The second day, called Ehecatl. wind, is repi'esented 
by the head of a crocodile with open jaws, and a fillet upon its head. 
The third day is called Galli, house, a Mexican house with flat roof. 
The floor, rear-wall, roof, ceiling, pillars and cross-beams are clearly 
defined. The fourth day is Qnetzpalin, or lizard. The fifth, Cohuatl, or 
serpent. The sixth, Miquitzli, or skull. The seventh, Matzatl, a stag. 
The eighth, TochtU, a rabbit. The ninth is Atl, water. The tenth is 
Itscuintli, a hound. A. von Humboldt expresses surprise that this 
head is the only one in the entire zone which had its face turned to the 
right. He had seen it thus in Gama's drawing, but the original shows 
it in the same position as the rest. The eleventh day is Ozomutl, a mon- 
key. The twelfth is Malinalli, a creeping plant, a skull surrounded by 
this parasite, — the decoration of a hero fallen in battle. The thirteenth 
day is Acatl, a cane. This is a tropical bamboo, growing only in moist 
places, and therefore is represented standing in a tub; the bud, breaking 
from its envelope of leaves, and the stalk are easily recognized. The 
fourteenth day is Ocelotl, the tiger. The fifteenth, Cozcaquauhtli, a king 
vulture. The sixteenth, Quauhtli, the eagle. The seventeenth, Ollin, 
a miuature of the great centre shield, the destruction of the world. 
The eighteenth is Tecpatl, the sacrificial knife. The nineteenth is 
QuiahuUl, the head of the statue of the god of rain. " And the twentieth 
day is Xochitl, a flow^er, with the water tub, the growing bud, the 
fruit, a kernel of corn and stamens. 

With these 20 representations of the days in an encircling ring, the 
unity of the idea of a full month is expressed. That these are indeed 



17 

the symbols of the 20 clays is more than confirmed by the many pictures 
which we possess in the Mexican Codices. It is interesting to observe 
that none of the painters or sculptors permit themselves to deviate 
essentially from the once established type of expression, either in 
outline (jr in color. 

In the interpretation of the following zone, that of the squares with 
Ave poiats enclosed, and also with the other one around this, consisting 
of small Glyphs, there is more of difficulty. No picture or text can be 
found in accessible sources. In consequence of this lack of external 
evidence we must try to develop internal explanation of their meaning. 
Therefore let us first examine the construction and arrangement of their 
several parts. The zone of the squares is as you see interrupted by the 
main pointers, and thereby divided into four equal parts. Each of the 
parts consists of ten little houses. Each of these encloses five points. 
The prevailing idea that upon this disc the ancient Mexican calen(hir is 
represented leads us to suppose that there was in the sequence of the 
squares, as well as in the numbers enclosed therein, a concealed calcu- 
lation which referred to the calendar. Let us see, now, what product 
we find by adding the given numbers. In each part are ten little houses, 
each with five numbers, therefore we obtain 50 for each part, and 200 for 
four of them. I frankly confess that I had no idea that the counting of 
the 200 numbers could be increased to 2G0, but Gama has shown me the 
way. He says In his description, always so hastily written, regarding 
this iiuportant zone, the following: " In it you find the ancient Mexican 
Teckomug,—3Ietz7i])olmalli; only 200 days are visible. You must look for 
the missing 60 under the pointers." That sounds very artful. We 
cannot remove the pointers and look under them. If we could do that 
we certainly should noc find the 60 days under them. Further explana- 
tion Gama does not give. But we will take this bare assertion as 
a hint whose meaning it is worth while to investigate more closely. Is 
Gaina indeed right? and has the artist, forced as he was to show the 
pointers on the disc, demanded of the observer to look for the missing 
days in the places which he had to cover with the pointers? Now if 
these pointers take just as much room as is necessary for placing under 
them the 60 numbers, or what is the same, 12 small houses, then the 
reckoning must be right. Let us take a compass, therefore, and meas- 
ure how much space each leg of a pointer covers. We find it takes just 
the room of one and a half houses. One pointer thus gives room for 
three houses, or 15 numbers. Now as we have only four main pointers, 
we obtain room for 60 numbers. These 60, added to the 200 which we 
have already, gives a hypothetical total of 260 numbers. Now the 
Moon-reckoning, MetzlipohualU, has just as many days as we have 
found numbers here. It is, therefore, very probable that each number 
is meant to represent a day. 

But this is thus far only a supposition. It might be easily said that 
the reckoning was riglit merely by accident. Has not the artist himself 



18 

given some certain Indication that directs tlie observer to find the miss- 
ing GO numbers under tlie pointers? Look at the cross-lines wiiich have 
been drawn over the pointers; they are in exact continuati'tn of the 
rings witli wliich the zone is surrounded. The ring-lines reach exactly 
to the end of tlie foot of each pointer. We must not suppose them to 
serve an ornamental purpose. Such a purpose could only have been 
reached if the artist had drawn all the lines parallel with the contours 
of the pointers. But by drawing the lines across the pointers, he has 
certainly indicated his meaning that the zone of the squares is continu- 
ous under the feet of the pointers, and that the corresponding numbers 
are also concealed there. 

Still we are not certain whether these so found 260 numbers are really 
syn)bols of the 200 days of the moon's reckoning. We shall be per- 
fectly sure if wc discover besides these 2G0, the other 105 which com- 
plete the year of 365 days. 

And in what more fitting place than directly in the following zone, 
that of the Glyphs, may we expect to find the 105 missing days? The 
arrangement is, as you see, entirely as in the preceding zone. This 
zone is also divided into parts by the intervening pointers. But we 
perceive not only four but eight parts. The four little pointers have 
stepped between the main ones. The zone also has a new syml)ol, a 
GUjph, which, as it appears to me, is an imitation of a keruel of maize. 
Evidently the days of the sun-reckoning should be different from those 
of the moon-reckoning. Consequently the different form of representa- 
tion is no stumhling-block. The principal thing is that the reckoning 
permits 105 such Glyphs to be found in the zone. Beginning to count, 
we find 10 Glyphs in each of the upper six divisions, and 5 in each of 
the two lower ones. This gives us 70 visible Glyphs. There are still 
35 Glyphs wanting for tlie completed number of the sun-reckoning. 
But we observe that the artist again demanded of us to imagine that 
the missing number is concealed under the pointers. He has drawn the 
lines of continuation of this zone also across the pointers, and not only 
over the four large ones, but also across the four smaller ones. Nay, 
he has even (and I am afraid Induced by very stupid advice), begun to 
carve a Glyph on the surface of the evening (west) pointer, within the 
cross-lines. We are therefore certain of his intention for the continua- 
tion. Let us, as before, measure, to find how many Glyphs will go 
under the space of each foot of a pointer. We find the measure gives 
one and a half Glyphs. We have 16 such spaces, and therefore room for 
24 such Glyphs. These, added to the 70 which we have, give 94. If we 
would be consistent we must imagine 10 Glyphs more concealed by the 
feathers of the helmets, and we thus reach the sum of 10-1 Glyphs 
within the zone, divided into eight parts. Now we are in distress. We 
need not only 104 but 105 Glyphs, and without the discovery of this 
last one our entire speculation would be good for nothing. Wherever 



19 

we look upon the monument this one single Glyph is nowhere to be 
found. 

Now, gentlemen, the artist must have been just as much at a loss to 
represent this last Ghjph, as we are to find it. The number 105, an odd 
one, does not, as we see, easily allow itself to be divided among the 
eight divisions which are equal to each other. This was as clear to the 
artist as to us. But let us think how, if he had an intention to repre- 
sent 105 days of the sun in this zone, he could have done it? 

In order to help himself, he could have drawn the lower part of the 
circle, unnoticed by the eye of the spectator, a trifle larger, and thus 
have made room for the 105th Glyph, or he could have carved each of 
the Glyphs in the lower part of the circle a trifle smaller. But the cir- 
cles, as well as the Glyphs, are uniform. He might have been able to 
put the missing Glyph between the openings of the lower large pointer, 
but he did not ; he would thereby have defaced the symmetry of the 
whole monument. How did he help himself? In the theoretical expo- 
sition of the ancient Mexican division of time, I have made mention of the 
last Ave days of the year, the Nemolemi. In a carved representation of 
such a division of time as we have on this monument, these Ave highly 
interesting days ought not to be wanting. But if they are contained 
here, then our idea of the purpose which the artist had in his mind will 
not only be better corroborated, but we shall at the same time be obliged 
to admit that the artist was perfectly aware of the customary computation 
of 365 days in a year, your eyes have, no doubt, before this, found the 
place where the artist brings to view the five Nemotemi days. Here! 
they are inserted over the large miduiglit pointer, between the two large 
lower tablets of the central shield. Now imagine this section, which is 
indeed nothing else than a portion of the double circle of the year, 
brought down, and the impression is created as if its central Glyph oc- 
cupied just the space where it is missing for the computation of the 105 
days of the sun, and in which place the artist did not trust himself to 
depict it, for reasons which I have already mentioned. In the strongest 
meaning of the words the artist has not tinished his task. He demands 
that we accept the missing Glyph as standing with the Nemotemi. I 
think we can accept this proposition. He, as a true artist, has spoken 
more clearly by a hint than we could ever have supposed at the begin- 
ning. He was hard pressed, but he has extricated himself skilfully. 
" How?" he thought, laughing, " I will leave you to guess !" 

Now, for the first time, we have a right to suppose the 260 numbers 
in the former zone to represent in reality the 260 days of the moon- 
reckoning. The numbers of each separate zone form the arithmetical 
complement of the other. Each, separately, gives us an insight in its 
own peculiar separation of the Mexican year, to wit, in the so-called 
moon-reckoning of the 260 days, and in the sun-reckoning of the 105 
days. 

We have found, up to now, the symbols of the 16 hours of the day, 



20 

those for the 20 days of the month, the month itself In the unity of the 
day-circle. We have found besides, the sum of 3()5 days as they were 
divided into 2G0 and 105 days, and linally tlu; five Nemotcinis. We might 
ask besides for a representation of the division of the week. Now here 
it is. The 5 points in each square shall represent the above-mentionrid 
Mexican week of live days. 

There remain still to be found representations of the 52-year cycle, 
and for the four eras of creation. 

We shall find the symbol of the cycles of the 52 years engraved in 
this last and broader zone which surrounds the entire disc. What is the 
proof of the symbol? We have an external proof of it by pictures in the 
so-called Mexican Codices. I have selected some for your inspec- 
tion. Here they are. (See the drawings for the collection of Kings- 
borough, Codex Vaticanus, pi. 91; Codex Botui'ini, pi. 10; Codex Telle- 
rianus. pis. 6 and 8.) Compare these pictural paintings with those 
sculptured on the zone. You will find that they agree completely. In 
botli a shaft is sunken into a round hole out of which some involuted 
object comes forward. We observe on each of the pictural representa- 
tions, that each is divided in halves, the one painted gray, the other, 
red. We find the same bipartition on this sculpture. What this symbol 
signifies becomes clear to us by the observation that on the painted 
tables, representing the j^ears, we always find the same sjnnbol after the 
lapse of 52 years. We find it always connected with the symbol of the 
52d year; In one place, in Kingsb. Col., Vol. V., Cod. Tel., page 150, 
pi. 8, it is accompanied by an explanatory text which says,—" This is 
the mark for the binding together of the 52 years." In this way its 
significance as the symbol of the 52-year cycle is established, and an 
external proof is fui-nished. The internal proof proceeds clearly from 
an analysis of the symbol in its different parts. 

The shaft represents the stick for rubbing, — tetlaxoni, which, put in a 
round disc of dry wood, produces, by friction, the sacred spark, by 
twirling it round and round. The volutes are the smoke arising there- 
from, made red by the reflection from the kindled flame. 

For a better and more vivid understanding of the symbol, I will give 
you in brief words a description of the re-kindling of the sacred fire, as 
the chroniclers have transmitted it to us. 

The ancient Mexicans had a superstition that the sun-god would 
destroy the world in the last night of the 52d year, and that he would 
never come back. To prevail on him to remain, they ofl'ered to him of 
their own free-will the greatest sacrifices; not a human life only, but 
also on all their hearths and in all their dwellings and temples, they 
extinguished their fires. They left it to the goodness of the god to give 
them back this element so necessary to mankind. They broke all their 
household furniture; they hung black masks before their faces; they 
prayed and fasted ; and on the evening of the last night tliey formed a 
great procession to a ueigliboring mountain. Arriving, there is lound a 



21 

man lying on a circular stone, who gave himself voluntarily as a sacri- 
fice to the god. Exactly at the midnight hour a priest thrust a knife into 
his breast, tore out the heart, and raised it towards the starry heavens 
with uplifted hands, while another priest laid a small, round block of 
dry, soft wood upon the open wound, and a third priest, springing on 
the stone and kneeling over the body, placed a hard stick perpendicu- 
larly on the block, which he then with his hands caused to revolve. 
This violent friction produced a spark which was caught up and was 
immediately carried to a neighboring funeral pile, whose rising flame 
proclaimed to the people the promise of the god to delay for a season 
the destruction of the world, and to grant to mankind a new lease of 
52 years of existence. Wherever among the nations in Asia Minor and 
other parts of the continent of Asia, the worship of the sun prevails, 
we read always of the same ceremonies at the periodical reproduction 
of the sacred fire, but perhaps not with the same bloody rites as in 
Mexico. Three pictures showing the kindling of fire can be seen ') on a 
wooden board in the Codex Selden, pi. 10; ^) the same procedure over 
the body of a serpent in Codex Laud, pi. 8, both in the Kingsborongh 
collection, and '^) the same scene upon a human body in the Codex 
Veletri, Fol. 3i. 

In this way the existence of the symbol indicating the larger division 
of time, the cycle of 52 years, is found to be represented on the 
monument. 

You will observe, within the upper part of the same zone, two other 
groups of sculptures, which give the idea of knots or loops. Such is 
indeed the case. What do they mean? After a close examination of 
the painted annals, it appears that this knotted loop is a second sym- 
bol, indicating the lapse of a cycle of 52 years. This symbol too, like 
the former, which represents the rekindling of the sacred fire, returns 
like it each time at the end of 52 years; and not closely connected, and 
underneath it as the former, but crowded in so imperceptibly that I only 
acquired the knowledge of its existence, when in the collection of 
Squier I saw a picture of Mexican annals where the artist had not 
crowded it in but had painted it separately underneath. Near it was 
written in the Nahuatl text the word Molpiynxihuitl, — translated it 
means the binding together of the years. We say, a century has 
elapsed, — the Mexicans said, we bind the years together. 

The copies in both cases are, ^), in Kingsborongh Col., Cod. Boturini, 
pi. 1,0; ^), Codex Squier. I will mention at the same time that the Yuca- 
tecos, also the artists of the.Palenque sculptures, have used the same 
knot as a symbol for a period which had elapsed. The discovery of 
these symbols and the establishing of their chronological signification, 
will be of value in the future, to throw more light on the history of 
Central American nations, as soon as we shall have secured more mate- 
rial for study. 

We now come to the last of the divisions of time,— to the eras, 
4 



22 

You will find their sj'mbols represented on the fonr large tablets which 
are grouped around the head of tlie sun-god in a higlily original manner. 
These eras, as I have said, were great cosmogonic epochs, about the 
duration of which the painters do not seem to have entirely agreed. 
The number of years indicated by them is various. It is sufHcient for 
the moment for us to know that the first era (the table for which 
is above the sun-god on the right hand) represents the destruc- 
tion of the world by war. Tradition tells us that tigers went forth 
and broke the bones of men. The head of this tiger wears an ear- 
ring with a curled feather, and a tassel depends from the ring. 
The four numbers shown in this tablet do not signify dates of days 
or yeai's. Four was the sacred number which appears every^vhere, 
expressed in circles or lines where sun-feasts or objects particularly 
connected with them were concerned. You see this number, four, 
repeated in the three other tablets, and also in a larger form in the 
interstices at the sides of the tablets, and once more in the same 
manner at the right and left and close to the border of the medallion 
which incloses the head. But the symbol athxed to the upper tablet 
at the left, 1 Tecpatl (one sacrificial knife), is a genuine symbol of the 
day, probably signifying the very da}^ in wliich the festival was cele- 
brated in memory of the first destruction of the world. The second 
tablet has the symbol for Ehecatl, or wind, in memory of the epoch 
when the world was destroyed by a hurricane. This epoch is separated 
from the first by the point of the diadem of the sun-god, and crowded 
in between these is visible an interesting smaller sculpture, — a wall 
with towers of varying size, rent, and the crumbling and falling roof 
lifted by the wind. Observe the small symbol for the breath, or wind, 
a tassel hanging from the side of the larger tower. The destroj^ed 
building therefore siguifies the royal city. If, as I suppose, the 
destroyed building means calli, or house, and the round button on the 
roof means one, we should have before us the announcement that on 
the day 1 cnlli a great festival was celebrated to commemorate the 
second destruction of the world. If we turn the disc half round 
towards the upper side, we recognise in the third tablet the head of 
the god of I'ain, — Tlaloc. The woi-ld, it was said, had been destroyed 
for the third time by rain. Rain drops flow down over the nose and 
the neck of the god. The festival of this destruction seems to have 
been held on the day 1 Quiahuitl (1 Rain), for we see the symbol 
for this dfiy placed at the foot of the tablet. In the last tablet 
you find the representation of the fourth destruction of the world, 
by a great flood. Nothing has more strongly led to the supposition 
that there might exist a connection between this American nation 
and those of the Orient than the communication which the natives 
at the time of the conquest had made to the missionaries, that such 
an event had occurred. A great flood, as they report, had inun- 
dated the world thousands of years ago. Two persons, man and 



23 

woman, the one Goxcnx, the other Xochiqiietzal by name, had saved 
themselves in a boat, and hmded on the top of a mountain. After a 
time a vulture came with a bone in its beak. " The destruction is still 
going on," said Goxcox. But after a while a humming bird came with a 
flower in its beak. This was a sign that things on the earth were again 
produced. The pair alighted from their boat, and from them are de- 
scended the whole human family. This account is regarded in more 
modern times as a fabrication of the priests, and the pictures of it, 
which are in existence, are considered simply as inventions. (I will show 
you now such a picture. It is from the work of Gemelli, il giro del mondo, 
Vol. VI., and is taken from the so-called picture of the migration of 
the Aztecs. Out of a sheet of water there projects, as you see, the peak 
of a mountain; on it stands a tree, and on the tree a bird spreads its 
wings. At the foot of the mountain peak there comes out of the water 
the heads of a man and a woman. The one wears on his head the sym- 
bol of his name, the head of Coxcox, a pheasant. The other head bears 
that of a hand with a bouquet [xochitl, a flower, and quetzal, shining 
in green gold]. In the foreground is a boat out of which a naked man 
stretches out his hands imploringly to he;iven). Now, still under 
the impression of this picture, turn your eyes to the sculpture in the 
tablet. There you will find represented the flood, and with great 
emphasis, by the accumulation of all those symbols with which the 
ancient Mexicans conveyed the idea of water,— i), a tub of standing 
water; 2), drops springing out, not two as heretofore in the symbol for 
Atl, water, but four drops; =*), the picture for moisture, a snail; *), 
above, a crocodile, the king of the rivers. In the midst of these symbols 
Avhich in their combination evidently express abundance of water, you 
will notice the profile of a man with a flllet, and a smaller one of a 
woman. There can be no doubt that these profiles indicate the Mexican 
N«)ah— Coajcox, and his wifa—Xochiquetzal, and at the same time the 
story of them, and the pictures representing the story have not been 
invented by the catholic clergy, but really existed among the nations 
long before the conquest. At the foot of the tablet stands thedate of 
the festival day 7 Ozomatl, or 7 Apes. 

My task to furnish a proof that the disc contains a complete sculp- 
tured representation of the division of time which prevailed in ancient 
Mexico, is mostly completed. We have found the 16 hours of the day, 
the 20 days of the month, the 5 days of the week, the 365 days of the 
year, the 5 Nemotemi, the, two subdivisions of the year of 260 days in 
the moon-reckoning and the 105 days in the sun-reckoning, the symbols 
for the cycle of 52 years in two difl"erent forms, and lastly the four eras. 

You will also ask me the signification of another zone— of that which 
lies between the zone of the sun-reckoning and that of the cycles. We 
will call it the zone of the rain-god,— Tlaloc. By the discovery of entirely 
analogous pictures in the painted annals " of rain streaming from out 
of the clouds," the explanation of the twelve sculptures resembling each 



iXVx 



24 

other, is justiflfd. Under each of these clouds discharging rain j'ou 
will observe four drops falling on a bed of earth, represented b}' three 
furrows in which there lies a seed-corn. This was the mode of repre- 
senting cultivated land. In consideration that on the great sacrificial 
pyramid there stood, as I showed you on the Kamusio drawing, not 
only the temple of the sun, but also that of the rain-god,— 77aioc, the 
artist, on the occasion of the consecration of the pyramid, of the 
dedication of the sacrificial slab, brought also his homage to the 
rain-god, by a representation of the rain, the fertilizer of all things. 

But I have not yet completed my explanation of the disc of the sun. 
The zone of the cycles owes us still more important disclo-^ures. As 
yet we know only what each of these cycle-tablets means ; not what all 
together signify. As the zone, Metzlipohualli, would have remained un- 
explained if Ave had looked only at each small house by itself and not at 
the meaning of them regarded as a whole, so it is here. We shall have 
to count the tablets in order to solve the problem which it is evident 
the artist has laid before us in connecting them with each other. It 
is evident that they must be connected with each other, as a whole 
series of tablets, and consequently as a series of cycles or festivals. 
You see each of these tablets brought close to the border of the next 
one, in the same manner iu which the painters used to represent the 
series of successive years (as you will see here on this painting, copied 
from the annals) in which the frame of each year appears closely con- 
nected with the preceding one. On one disc the series and connection 
of the sculptured tablets of the cycles begins at the bottom, from the 
two heads decorated with helmets. Whom these heads represent I am 
unable to tell. 'J'he artist may have had in his mind to represent the 
discoverer and improver of the calendar of the sun. From thera the 
zone goes round to the right and left and each half ends in a pointer 
above. These two pointers converge towards a conspicuous tablet 
between them, which crowns the whole disc. 

By counting the tablets, we find 12 on each side, and 24 in all. Now 
If each of these tablets and the corresponding cycle includes 52 years, 
then 24 such tablets would express a total of 1248 years. What we 
have to do with these 1248 years has clearly been indicated by the artist. 
We must bring them into connection with the large tablet at the head of 
the disc, for nothing can be understood by the two pointers alone. 
These pointers have a certain function to perform. They are, as it 
were, the leaders of their respective cycle columns. They move them 
towards this crown-tablet and thereby indicate that these two columns 
should be brought into a certain connection with it. The true meaning 
of this connection will not be understood before we know what the 
symbol engraved on the crown-tablet may signify. Nothing is easier to 
decypher. It is that of Acatl, a cane, which we have become acquainted 
with as the symbol for a certain day. We see added to this symbol 
the number 13; consequently we read 13 Acatl. Now, as 13 Acatl 



25 

is a well-known name for a distinct Mexican 3'^ear, to wit, for tlie last 
year of a cycle of 52 years, let us translate this year of 13 Acatl into 
on r own chronological language. To do this I simply refer, for I must 
be brief, to the authentic reduction tables which I can show and explain 
if it is desired. This year, 13 Acatl, changed into our corresponding 
year will give us A. D. 1479. 

. A year engraved in such a place as this evokes from the beginning the 
supposition that it was intended to designate a time in which this work 
of art was made and consecrated to its public uses. We disperse all 
doubts if we call to mind the donor of this altar-disc, the king Axayacatl, 
of whom the chronicler, Tezozomoc, tells us that, sickening in conse- 
quence of his feast of consecration, he lived but a year longer. The 
reign of this king was from 1466 to 1480. Yuu see, therefore, how 
reliable is the report of the historian, [Tezozomoc, and that the symbol, 13 
Acatl, can not fairly be understood to signify the day 13 Acatl of the 
Mexican calendar, but must be interpreted by the year of this "very 
same name, which year is found equivalent to ours, A. I). 1479.] Now, 
the connection into which the artist wished to bring these two semi- 
circles of cycles to the year A. D. 1479, was no other, as it seems, than 
to inform the observer that when, in this year, 13 Acatl, he carved the 
altar-disc, he had found mentioned in the annals 24 festivals of the 
re-kindling of the sacred tire. This, therefore, in our idiom, would 
signify that the Mexicans, in the year A. D. 1479, had a recorded 
national existence of 1248 years. For this reason, the beginning of 
their national era would be the year A. D. 231. 

It is not diflicult for us to guess what particular historical event was 
meant to coincide with this date, if one is only familiar with all the 
traditions, the accounts of the missionaries, the collected labors of the 
chroniclers, and the explanations which have been made even so 
recently as the last century, relating to the history of the people of 
Anahuac. I cannot go further into details, however interesting they 
appear to me. Only so much I may say : It is evident from the scru- 
tiny of all the mentioned authorities, that the anuals indicate the middle 
of our third century as the time when tlie people arrived, who, comiu"- 
from the three eastern harbors of Central America, — Tampico, Xica- 
lauco and Bacalar— penetrated into the interior of the country, killed the 
giants who inhabited Cholula, and became, in Yucatan, Honduras, Chia- 
pas and Mexico, the founders and builders of those numerous towns and 
temples whose ruins we to-day behold with wonder. The disc, there- 
fore, with its chronological zone, should be considered one of the most 
reliable authorities on the earlier periods of ancient Mexican history. 
On the one hand it gives a historical date; on the other hand it cou- 
lirms one which long ago was only a speculation, and for that reason 
always regarded with doubt, 

[Another question is still to be solved, namely, what use can be made 
of the symbols for the ligatures ? Each ligature was found to represent 



26 

one cj'cle, and since we have two bundles of these liy:atnres, each 
of four symbols, ou the disc, the product of multiplying 8 by 52 would 
give a sum of 416 years. Thus much, however, is clear, that these 416 
years were not intended by the artist to be added to the 1248 years. 
Had ho so intended, we do not perceive why he should not have 
increat^ed the number of the 24 tablets to 32 tablets at once. He would 
have found the room for them, if he had only sought it. In this per- 
plexity, the well known dates of written Mexican history will come 
to our aid, and lead us on a track, which very probal)Iy, will atlbrd 
a reasonable solution of the problem. All chroniclers agree in 
speaking of the year's date of a memorable event that occurred in the 
middle of the 11th century : that of the dispersion and ruin of a mighty 
and highly cultured race, which for long centuries had swayed the 
destinies of Anahuac, civilized the ancient indigenous race, laid the 
foundation of social, political and religious order, and built sumptuous 
palaces and temples. Yet this nation, at the epoch indicated, afflicted by 
drought, famine, pestilence, and also by domestic revolution, had 
o-iven way to the irruption of other races, coming from the North of 
Mexico. Several Northern tribes, we are told, had come, one after the 
other, settled on the ruins of the former, and gradually adopted from the 
few and highly civilized remnants that civilization which anciently had 
formed its glory. The writers commonly give that ancient race the 
name of the TuUecas, to the invading barbarians, that of Chichimecas, 
of which latter, the Aztecs, were those who came last, and who on the 
lonely island of the Tezcuco-lagoou, had succeeded in building up the 
splendid town of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, and very soon arose to such a 
power, that the surrounding tribes, willingly or not, acknowledged 
their supremacy. 

Now, this total destruction of the so-called Tultecan Empire and the 
first invasion by Ohichiinecan tribes from the North, is generally set 
down in the chronicles under the year date of 1003 A. D. It is a round 
chronological number and will be found to bear the name of 13 Acatl. 
If we now incline to make use of this year's date of the overthrow of 
the ancient Tultecan dynasty set down at 1063 A. D., and would subtract 
the sum of these eight cyclical ligatures (which is 416) from the date of 
the inauguration of the disc, 1479, we should come to the year's date of 
1063 A. D. It was the date of the important national event, which 
could not have escaped the knowledge of the aunal-pa inters, since we 
learned that they knew enough of their ancient history to carry it back 
as far as 231 A. D. These 416 years, therefore, would represent the full 
epoch occupied by Chichiinecan history ,_ from 1063 to the year 1479 of 
our Disk. 

Let us now follow this same train of thought and suppose that the 
artist, who was a Chichimecan by nation, but an Aztec by tribe, when 
he was writing history with his chisel on the disc, had felt desirous of 
incorporating on it also a date of special interest to his tribe, the Aztecs, 



27 

namely, that of the foundation of the Aztecaa dynasty, Iiow could he do 
this better than in the way as it seems he actually did it? We allude 
to the peculiar circumstance of two tablets of rekindling- the sacred fire 
severed from the remaining series of tablets. These two tablets, trans- 
lated so to speak into the language of numbers, represent two cycles, 
which give us the number of 101 years. It happened that exactly in 
the year 1479 two cycles had elapsed since the ascension of the first 
Aztecan king, Acampichtli, to the throne of Mexico. This memorable 
event in Aztecan history we find set down in the printed annals as the 
year 13 Acatl, or 1375 A. D.J 

Much more might be said about the contents of this chronological 
zone, which will not escape the attentive observer, but I must refrain 
from giving more information just now. I must refrain also from 
speakiug of the conclusions which might now be drawn from the estab- 
lishing of so early historical data, in explanation of still earlier periods, 
dates. It is true, which have been indicated solely in the painted annals. 
I could make you acquainted with what might be understood by the date, 
X Calli, or 137 A. D., particularly in what year the earlier annals make 
mention of a great eclipse of the sun. Also, with regard to the date 
1 Tecpatl, about which the astronomers are said to have had a congress 
for the correction of the calendar, and which corresponds to the year 29 
before the birth of Christ. But I have already occupied your time and 
attention beyond the intended limits, and I close my lecture with my 
warmest thanks for the honor of so large an audience. 



Note by the Translator. 

The references which now appear as foot-notes in the Vortrag, 
and several paragraphs of the text, wei'e supplied after publica- 
tion, by Dr. Valentini, at special request, and in the interest of 
completeness. 

A short biographical sketch of the author may not be without interest 
to his readers. Philipp J. J. Valentini was born at Berlin, Prussia, in 
1828. His father was a teacher of foreign languages, and he was early 
trained to philological pursuits. He was educated in the Lyceum of llos- 
leben and the Gymnasium of Torgau, and studied jurisprudence at the 
University of Berlin, where he was appointed auscultator of the Kammer 
gericht. Interrupted in this career by political disturbances, he was 
forced to enter the army. In 1854 he went to Central America with 
schemes of colonization. He found that the people of Costa Rica could 



28 

give HO account of the entry and settlement of their ancestors in that 
country: and in pursuit of information, in 1858 he returned to Berlin to 
discover historical material that might throw light ou this obscure point 
of early Spanish colonization. The first vague results were presented 
in a dissertation on this question, for which he received the degree of 
Ph. D. from the University of Jena. 

In 1861 Dr. Valentini revisited Costa Kica, with the intention of view- 
ing localities of conquest and discovery, and making researches among 
the archives of the five Central American liepublics. There he estab- 
lished, in union with Dr. Streber, the first statistical ofHt:e on a modern 
plan, and was sent by the government to assist at the foundation of the 
Atlantic province of Limon (Caribbean Gulf). He visited, in schooner 
and canoe, the west coast discovered by Columbus, Roatau Island, and 
as far as Boca del Toro. He found that Columbus's reports of his fourth 
voyage fi'om Jamaica were as complete as could be made by that perse- 
cuted navigator. Dr. Valentini was encouraged by the government to 
publish his investigations; but the German and the Spanish texts still 
remain in manuscript in consequence of a subsequent revolution in that 
country. 

In the course of his studies he arrived at the conviction that the con- 
quest could not be understood without research into the former history 
of the Indians, and that chronology is the backbone of the historical ac- 
count. Indian history is supposed to be written ou stone, the copies of 
which are often of doubtful correctness. Therefore, Dr. Valentini visited 
Guatemala to inspect the hieroglyphics of Palenque. He was not able 
to penetrate farther than to the Quiche ruins on account of sedition of 
the border Indians. To arrive at positive proof that a certain symbol 
found in the engravings of the named races represented that which the 
ancient races used for their century was his fixed purpose. Residing in 
Guatemala and San Salvador for some time, he completed his MSS. of 
the "Discovery and Conquest of the ancient Province of Castilla de 
Oio," and a " Geography of San Salvador" for the use of schools. 

In 1871. Dr. Valentini came to New York, and was able to pursue bis 
studies of Indian hieroglyphics in the Mexican department of the Astor 
Library. He received from the Smithsonian Institution an original copy 
of a curious Central American slab, presented to that collection twenty- 
five years ago, from Tabasco, without explanation. He recognized this 
as the tablet which J. L. Stephens missed when he explored the 



29 

oratory. (Travels in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, Vol. II., 
page 346). On this, the supposed symbol for the century is clearly ex- 
pressed by a knot. The same knot, or loop resembling a bow knot, 
appears also in the Mexican painted hieroglyphics, and particularly on 
the Calendar Stone interpreted in the Vortrag herewith presented. 
One vertebra of the backbone of Indian history is now recognized. 
The skeleton can be reconstructed of the disjecta membra, from 
which important conclusions may be drawn. Dr. Valentini has pre- 
pared an essay and interpretation on some of the Palenque slabs, 
which contain, however, no history of that people, but were merely 
local temple records. He has been, and is now, occupied in teaching 
languages as a profession. 

Stephen Salisbury, Jr. 



TEKRA COTTA FIGURE EROM ISLA MUJERES, 

NORTH-EAST COAST, OF YUCATAN. 



By Stephen Salisbury, Jr. 



The aboriginal relics considered in this article are portions 
of a female ligure in terra cotta, found bj Dr. Augustus Le 
Plongeon, late in the year 1876, on the Island of Mnjeres. 
It formed the front of a brasero or supposed incense burner * 
and though the exact dimensions of the entire figure can 
not be given, some idea of its relative size may be formed 
by observing the way in which a smaller figure was 
attached to a brasero or earthen vase, which is also shown in 
heliotype for comparison. The portions of the figure which 
remain are hollow, and are made of a reddish clay. The 
face is very expi-essive, with open mouth, sliowing the upper 
row of teeth filed * as are said to be those of Chaacmol, dis- 
covered by tlie same explorer at Chichen-Itza, Yucatan, 
already described in a previous paper.f The nostrils are 
perforated and also the pupils of the eyes. Tliere are small 
holes near the base of the ears from which an ornament 
may have originally depended. The expression of the face 
is cruel and savage, and when seen in profile extremely 
searching. The head is surmounted by a helmet or head- 
dress 8 inches higli, the base of which consists of a square 

*The practice of filing the teeth is spoken of by Landa, Belation des 
choses de Yucatan, de Diego de Landa. Paris, 1864, page 183, Also, by 
Herrera [English Text], Vol. IV., page 174. 

tFroctedings, April 25, 1877, page 70. 



32 

band, presenting a front of Y inches and 4^ inches wide, 
witli an indented border above and below, narrowing at the 
middle of the face so as to expose much of the forehead. 
The band is ornamented by lines and incrustations. Above 
the band is a tubular projection 4^ inches high, the top of 
which is of greater diameter than the base, and is marked 
with regular incisions. The feet and part of the leg remain. 
Above the ankle are seen traces of the clothing. The feet 
are shod with sandals, like those of the statue of Chaacmol, 
which are confined b}^ a band of some material at the heel, 
and tied together in front in a manner very similar to that 
•which is practised at the present time among the Indians 
of that country. The toes are clearly defined, and the 
nails are carefully formed. 

The surface of the clay shows the wear of time and the 
effect of contact with moist earth, but portions still present 
the original smooth finish seen on terra cotta objects that 
have been better preserved. On offering these relics for 
inspection to a skilful potter, much admiration was expressed 
for the abilit}'^ in moulding shown by the Indian workmen 
of the past. In fact, the degree of skill manifested in the 
execution would indicate a trained eye and hand, and a 
knowledge of effect not often observed in the stone and 
clay works of early Indian artists. The illustration marked 1 
on the opposite page is from a photograph of the shrine, near 
which the relics marked 2 and 3 were excavated. It is 
presumably the same building described and pictured in 
Stephens's " Travels in Yucatan," Yol. II., page 416, as the 
two plates agree entirely with each other, except that in the 
later picture, the building has suffered somewhat from the 
disintegrating influences of thirty-five years. There is also 





1.— Shrine at South end of Isla Mujeres. 



4. -Incense Burner, from Guinea Grass, British 
Honduras. 




Heliotype Printing Co. 

3,— Portions of Terra Cotta Figure, forming front of 
Incense Burner, found near the Shrine at the South 
end of Isla Mujeres, North- East Coast of Yucatan. 



12 34567 89/0 


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I- 1 





330 Devonshire St., Boston. 

3,— Another view of the same Figure, forming front of 
Incense Burner, found near the Shrine at South 
end of Isla Mujeres, North-East Coast of Yucatan. 



33 

a discrepancy in the localities, Stephens saying that the 
ruins were at the North end of the island, while Dr. Le 
Plongeon places them at the South point, both in his written 
description and upon the plans of the island which are intro- 
duced later. However, Dr. Le Plongeon has given the most 
conclusive proof of his assertion in the plans which he has 
offered. That tlie building is the same viewed by Stephens 
is shown by the fact that his name, with the date 1842, is 
mentioned in a letter to the writer accompanying the pho- 
tograph, as one of those traced " on the lintel of the 
largest doorway on the South side of the building." \ 

The illustration marked 4 is another supposed incense 
burner, now in the possession of the writer. It was the 
property of Mr. John E. Mutrie, of the house of Guild & 
Co., of Belize, British Honduras, and w^as found at Guinea 
Grass, New liiver, Northern District, British Honduras, and 
is 9^ inches high and 7 inches in diameter. This specimen 
of a brasoro or incense burner, is here shown to indicate the 
character of the object of which the face and feet, previ- 
ously described, formed a part. 

The interest in these relics is much increased by the 
fact that the Island of Mujeres, where they were found, 
received its name. from the worship of female idols, which 
was there observed by the Spaniards on the first exploration 
of the coast of the continent of which we have a detailed 
account. This island was the earliest discovery in the expe- 
dition of Cordova, and is thus described by Torquemada in 
his Monarchia Indiana : — 

" In the year 1516, Francisco, Fernandez de Cordova, Christoval 
Movante, and Lope Ochoa de Caucedo, armed three ships to go to 
seek for Indians in the neighboring islands, and to traffic, as had 



34 

been their custom up to that time, and their expedition was un- 
eventful until they discovered the land of Yucatan— a coast until 
then unknown and undiscovered by us Spaniai-ds ; wliere upon a 
headland there were some very large and good salt mines. It was 
called Las Mujeres, because there were there towers of stone, 
with steps, and chapels, covered with wood and straw, in which 
many idols that appeared to be females were arranged in a very 
artificial order. The Spaniards marveled to see edifices of stone, 
that up to that time they had not seen in those islands, and that 
the people there clothed themselves so richly and beautifully, be- 
cause they had on tunics and mantles of white cotton and in colors, 
ornamented with feathers, carcillos, and with gold and silver 
jewelry ; and the breasts and heads of the M'omen were covered. 
There came soon canoes full of people. We called to them by 
signs that they should come on, and there entered thirty Indians 
into our ships, and they wondered to see our people. We re- 
warded them, and they went away promising to come back an- 
other day, which they did, bringing a message from the chief 
himself, who said these words: Conez cotoche, [which means 
'Go there into my houses'], and they called this place Point 
Cotoche. Those in the ships went on the land and had a skirmish 
with the natives of the country, as related by Antonio Herrera in 
the Decades ; and they wounded fifteen Spaniards ; engaging 
them one after another, until they came foot to foot; and they 
seized our two Indians who became afterward Christians and 
were called, the one Julian and the other Melchor. There were 
of those Indians many wounded and seventeen killed." * 

Herrera states in his account of tliis action : 

" Where this defeat was sustained there were three housesf made 
of stone and lime, which were oi-atories, with many idols of clay, 
having countenances of demons, of women, and of other horrid 



* Monarchia Indiana. For F. Juan de Torquemada. Madrid, 1725. 
Lib. IV., cap. 3. 

tThe remarkable agreement in the number of buildings mentioned by Herrera 
with the number found by Dr. Le Plongeon, in a more or less ruined condition, 
as shown in his plan which aceouipanics a communication hereafter introduced, 
dated June 15, 1878, is to be noted. The plan is entitled " Plan of the Southern- 
most Point of Island Mujeres, showing the relative position of the ruins." 



35 

figures. ***** And, while they fought, the priest Alonzo 
Gonzalez took from the oratories certain boxes in which were 
idols of clay and of wood, with ornaments, adornments, and 
diadems of gold. They took in this encounter two laborers who 
were Christians, — called Julian and Melchor. The Spaniards 
returned to embark, content with having discovered a people of 
reason, and other matters different from those of Darien and the 
islands ; especially houses of stone and lime — a thing that they 
had not seen in the Indies up to that time." * 

Bancroft, in his Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. 
TV., page 277, says : " The scarcity of idols among the 
Maya antiquities must be regarded as extraordinary. The 
double-headed animal and the statue of the old woman at 
Uxmal ; the rude figure carved on a long flat stone, and the 
small statue in two pieces at Nolipat ; the idol at Zayi, re- 
ported as in use for a fountain ; the rude, unsculptured mon- 
oliths of Sijoli ; the scattered and vaguely-mentioned idols on 
the plains of Mayapan, and the figures in terra cotta collect- 
ed by Norman at Campeachy, complete the list, and many of 
these may have been originally merely decorations of build- 
ings. The people of Yucatan were idolaters there is no 
possible doubt, and in connection with the magnificent 
shrines and temples erected by them, stone representations 
of their deities, carved with all their aboriginal art, and 
rivalling or excelling the grand obelisks of Copan, might 
naturally be sought for. But in view of the facts it must 
be concluded that the Maya idols were small, and that such 
as escaped the fatal iconoclasm of the Spanish ecclesiastics 
were buried by the natives, as the only means of preventing 
their desecration." 

The writer has three specimens of Campeachy idols, which 



*nistoria de las Indias. For Antonio de Herrera. Madrid, 1601. Tom. T. 
Decade II., Lib. IV., cap. 17. 



36 

he procured at that city in 1862. They are of a reddish 
clay of a darker hue than that from Mujeres Ishind, and 
measure respectively 5, 6 aud 7 inches in height. They have 
high head-dresses, and two of them liave wraps about the 
throat, and are otherwise grotesquely clothed. Two of them 
are arranged with a whistle, and the other answers the pur- 
pose of a rattle, which suggests the idea that they may have 
been used as toys, to say nothing of any other purpose. 
This peculiarity is not uncommon in similar relics found in 
the central portions of tlie continent. These so-called Cam- 
peachy idols were found in the Indian graves which abound in 
that locality. Similar terra cotta figures are pictured in 
Bancroft's Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. lY., page 
264. The figures bear marks of being moulded by hand, 
and not cast, and this same observation applies to the Mu- 
jeres figure. On inspection the Campeachy idols show traces 
of white, vermilion and green pigment, which is not uncom- 
mon in the picture paintings of the Mayas. 

Tlie incense burner shown in Plate 4 exists now only in 
the figure which is still perfect, and in pieces of the vase 
which is broken. The heliotype was taken from a photo- 
graph secured while it was still perfect and entire. The 
pieces of the vase show marks of fire and are much black- 
ened, but whether from ancient use or from modern experi- 
ment can not be determined. However, it is fair to presume 
that the coloring is ancient, as clay utensils of aboriginal 
date often retain the traces of exposure to smoke and flame. 

After the receipt of these terra cottas, Dr. Le Plongeon, 
at the request of the writer, prepared an account of his dis- 
covery of the relics pictured in Plates 2 and 3, and extracts 
from his communication are here given, as the most fnll and 






iim' 




PLAN OF ^t 

SOUTHERN MOST POINT^^^^ ...,..^..- 
0F ISLAND MUJERE5, A/ff^^ 



SHOWING THE 

RELATIVE POSITION OFTHF RUINS 



Surweyec/ Deo S'.:"^ /<3/6 

AUGUSTUS Le PLONGEON, 

A/l. D. 



37 

complete description of the Island Mnjeres, its people and its 
rnins,*of which we have any knowledge. The incense bnrner 
in Plate 4 represents a similar object in perfect preservation, 
though of less artistic merit than that which Dr. Le Plongeon 
describes in the following letter: — 

Colony of British Honduras, 

Bktjze, 15 June, 1878. 

Stephen Salisbury, Jr., Esq., Worcester, Mass. : 

Dear /Sir. — You ask me to furnish you with a description of the 
locality where I discovered the beautiful specimen of Maya 
ceiamic art — the head of a priestess, now in your possession — 
disinterred by me at the shrine on the southernmost end of Island 
Mujeres 

Notwithstanding all such descriptions belong by right to the 
work I intend to publish on the ruins of Maya|)an, and a prema- 
ture relation might, perhaps, with many individuals, detract fiom 
the interest of the book, the concern manifested by you in our 
labors and discoveries amongst the ruined cities of the Mayas, 
causes me to put aside any egotistical feelings and prompts me to 
cheerfully comply with your request. 

May the reading of the following lines prove to yourself, to the 
members of the American Antiquarian Society, and to the lovers 
of science, as interesting as the visit to the island has to Mrs. 
Le Plongeon and myself 

IsLA Mujeres is a small islet on the eastern shores of the 
Yucatan Peninsula, situated about six miles from the coast, in 
latitude North 21° 18' and longitude West 86° 42', Greenwich 
meridian. It is. a mere rock of coralline calcareous stone, six 
miles long and one-half mile broad in its widest parts, whilst in 
many places it is scarcely two hundred steps across. The 
northernmost point, called ^l frayle, at high tide is cut off from 
the main portion of the island. The north end is barely higher 
than the level of the sea, but the soil rises gradually from north 
to south and west to east until it reaches an elevation of forty 
to fifty feet at the south extremity. There, are conspicuous the 
ruins of the shrine and those of three other small buildings, 
6 



38 

hanging on the very brink of llio precipice, serving as landmarks 
to mariners. 

Island Mujeres was one of the first lands discovered by the 
Spanish adventurers who came to the conquest of Mayapan, 
attracted thither by their lust for gold. 

Bisliop Landa is the chronicler who has given t))e most minute 
and correct accounts of Mayapan — ot its inhabitants, tlieir cus- 
toms, laws and modes of life. He tells us in liis work, "ia* 
cosas de Yucatan,'' that when the Spaniards landed there, they 
found a shiine, on the altars of which were the images of many 
women ; that in the impulse of their religious fanaticism they 
destroyed these images and replaced them by one of the Virgin 
Mary. Mass was then celebrated in presence of a large multi- 
tude of Indians. That on account of so many statues of females 
having been found there, they gave the place the name of Isla 
de las Mujeres — Women's Island. 

The same chronicler also informs us that there existed a shrine 
dedicated to female idols. Hither pilgrims came from far and 
rear in order to sacrifice and deposit votive offerings. To-day 
even, the soil in front of the shrine is strewn with their debris, 
more or less broken. They consisted of terra cotta figures made 
to the semblance of the human body or parts of the same. 

After the conquest of Yucatan, not only the shrine, but the 
whole island seems to have been abandoned. It remained unin- 
habited for many years. 

The village of Dolores is built on the beach of the pi-etty little 
bay, where the fleet of fishing smacks from Havana, as the pirates 
of old, find a sure shelter from the violence of the stormy 
northeis that dash the waves against the iron-bound shores of the 
eastern side of the islet, producing a terrific and deafening noise. 

The houses are snugly ensconced in a thick grove of cocoa 
trees, whose evergreen foliage shields them from tlie scorching 
rays of the tropical sun. Three streets run north and south, 
parallel with the beach of the bay, and are crossed at right angles 
by others leading from the bay to the ocean. The principal 
street, the middle one, half a mile in length, covered with deep 
sand, as are all the others, leads in a straight line to the necropolis. 

The dwellings, with but very few exceptions, are mere thatched 
huts. The walls are formed of palisades of trunks of palmetto 



39 

trees called chut., that grow in great abundance on the island 
and on the main land opposite. They are stuccoed inside and out 
■with cob, and then whitewashed. Amongst the five hundred 
bouses of which the village is composed, a dozen may have their 
walls of stone and mortar, but all are covered with the leaves of 
the palmetto tree. Each hut is separated from the next by a 
court-yard. In some, the owners, with great patience and labor, 
try to cultivate in the sandy soil, a few rose-busbes and other 
flowering shrubs of sickly appearance, of which they are very 
proud. 

The village boasts of a Square. The south side is occupied by 
a neat little church, tlie result of the handiwork of some devout 
individuals vs?ho, being caught at sea in a norther, and in inirai 
nent peril of their lives, vowed to build, with their own hands, a 
new church, in lieu of the old one, which, had been destroyed by a 
storm, if they reached the shore alive. On the east side are 
seen, at the foot of a hillock, the foundation walls of the ancient 
church. The west side is adorned with a long, narrow shed, 
surrounded by a rustic balustrade. In the rear of it is a large room 
— this is the barracks ; two cells — these are the jail. The whole 
form the City Hall, for the reunions of " El consejo municipal" 
— the common council — when that honorable body meets, and 
duiing every day in the week it is converted into a school-room. 
Private dwellings fill the noith side of the Square or Plaza. 

The interior of the houses is the same for the rich as for the 
poor. It consists of a large single j-oom, which serves during the 
day as parlor and reception room. It is converted at night into a 
common sleeping apartment by hanging hammocks from the 
rafters which support the guano roof. Oftentinaes an old sail 
hung across the room divides it into two apartments, and serves 
in lieu of a cuitain. In several houses, whose owners have been so 
fortunate as to pick up stray pine boards from wrecked vessels 
that have been wafted in the neighborhood of the island, or from 
the coast of the main land opposite, the old sail has been replaced 
by a wooden partition. 

The articles of furniture are few and old-fashioned — some 
wooden chairs and tables, trunks, supported on trestles to isolate 
them from the damp floors of betim (Maya for concrete), in order 
to preserve their contents from humidity and mould, and the ehrine 



40 

of the Pejiate, containing the wooden statuette of the patron saint 
of the family, before which is constantly burning a small lamp. A 
coarse hammock or two, together with fishing nets, oars, poles, 
masts, sails, and divers otJier tackle, complete the list, not forget- 
ting a few cheap colored lithographs of the Virgin Mary and 
some saint or other. 

The inhabitants are, as a general thing, a fine set of people. 
The men, mostly of Indian race, speaking among themselves the 
Maya language, are sinewy and athletic. They forcibly recalled 
to our minds the figures uf warriors so beautifully portrayed on 
the walls of the inner room in the Chaacmol monument at 
Chichen-Itza. It is surj)rising to see them handle their canoes 
— so similar in shape to those used by the ancient Mayas, as seen 
sculptured on the stones of the queen's room in Chichen. Hardy, 
fearless and skilful in their own craft, they are said to be worth- 
less as sailors in larger vessels. The M'omen, of medium lieight, 
are handsome, graceful, not over shy, and rather slovenly. 

It is a fj\ct, patent at first sight, that the Indian blood is fast 
disappearing from amongst the islanders. The blue eyes, fair, 
rosy skins, and light blonde hair of the rising generation bespeak 
their direct descent from European blood. 

Salt is found in large quantities in the centre of the island. It 
is deposited on the shores of an extensive pool of salt water, 
connected by an undergroun<l passage which communicates at 
certain epochs of the year with the sea on the east side of the 
islet. 

A large portion of the inteiior of the island is occupied by a 
most picturesque lake, which opens on the south side of the bay 
by a narrow channel, through which the waters of the ocean enter, 
and is very nearly three miles in length. The lake is conse- 
quently sxibject to tides. 

On the third of December I hired Don Ambrosio Aquilar and 
his boat in order to visit the ruins at the south end of the island. 
After bi'eakfast, we left Dolores, in company with a gentleman 
from Campeachy, who had arrived a few days before. The people 
saw us leave the shore with suspicious eyes. We were all 
strangers, going to visit a place that no one cares for, and where 
the pirates used to have a lookout. There could be no possible 
doubt that we were going in search of the treasui'e said to be 



41 

buried there; and an hour after our arrival at the ruins there Avas 
no lack of visitors and people, who came suddenly upon us and 
observed our movements. 

A little more than an hour's pleasant sailing along the eastern 
shore of the island brought us opposite tl)e ruins, which appeared 
toweling above our heads on the very brink of a precipitous pro- 
montory. The whole building seemed as if it was about to 
tumble into the sea and crush ns under its debris. We could find 
no place to land. The sea was breaking heavily on the coralline 
rocks ; so we were obliged to retrace our way until we could find 
a proper place. We soon met with a small nook where the water 
was calm, and the boat could be safely anchored on the edge of 
the coral reef, but the rock was high and perpendicular. There 
was a small patch of white sand beach where we could easily 
land. We made up our minds to try to ascend this natural stone 
wall. Holding to the rough and projecting points of the rock, and 
also to the roots and the hanging withes, we soon found ourselves 
on firm ground, within half a mile of the building. We came to 
a slight declivity that seemed artificially made, and then to a per- 
fectly level plain, sandy and barren. At our right, on the very 
edge of the rock, were the ruined walls of a small square building. 
It stood on an oblong platform about two metres high, easily 
ascended by means of a stairway composed of five steps, on the 
east side. The whole was entirely covered by the Cactus opuntia 
plant, whose prickly leaves forbade intrusion. Opposite, on the east 
side of the promontory, on the brink also of the precipice, are the 
remnants of another structure, now completely destroyed. Only 
the foundation stones of the walls are left. I am informed that in 
1847 the walls stood entire, but were demolished by the people 
who immigrated at that time, in order to procui-e materials for 
building their houses. To-day they are obliged to go lo Msucte, 
probably the ancient ' JEkab of the chroniclers, a large ruined 
city on the main land opposite Mujeres, in order to procure hewn 
stones. They go there with fear and trembling, lest they should 
meet with Indians from Tulum., and be made prisoners. 

About one hundred metres from these ruins, going south, is the 
shrine, standing on the narrowest part of the promontory. On 
each side the rock has given way to the incessant disintegrating 



42 

powei- of the waves, and tumbled into the sea, carrying in its fall 
the eastern end of the platform, and the wall of the edifice. 

It is a rough, oblong structure, originally measuring 5m. 95c. 
by 5m. 25c., and 3 metres in height. It faces nearly south, and 
stands on a platform 2 metres high, by 9m. 25c. from north to 
south, and 8m. 55c. from east to west. 

Its architecture is similar to that of the larger monuments of 
the interior of the peninsula, with but a slight variation in the 
entablature and in the cornice. The construction is rude, as that 
of the buildings I have had an opportunity of visiting on the 
coast at Meko, Nisucte, Kankun, and the Island of Cozumel. 
Formerly the walls were stuccoed, and may have been orna- 
mented. The stucco has now disappeared, except in a few small 
patches here and there, and the walls inside and out are left 
denuded. 

As in all the edifices devoted in Mayapan to religious worship, 
the inteiior is divided into two rooms, the innermost and 
smallest being the holy of holies, where the shrine proper, or 
altar of the god or goddess, stood. This fact, recorded by 
Landa, Cogolludo, and other chroniclers, is in the present case most 
forcibly illustrated. 

The exterior walls measure exactly Om. 90c. in thickness, 
the inner, or that which divides the sanctuary from the front 
room, Om. 70c. The ceiling is formed by a triangular arch. 
The sanctuary is 4m. 95c. long and Im. 15c. wide; the front 
room of the same length is a little wider, being Im. 35c. 

Let me remark here, that if, in the measurement of the monu- 
ments of Yucatan, I have adopted the meti'ic standard of linear 
measure, it has not been from choice, but from necessity, 
and the strange discovery that the metre agrees with the standard 
of dimension adopted by these most ancient artists and architects. 
I have tried successively the English yard, the Spanish vara, the 
P"'rench toise ; none gave me the exact dimensions of the width of 
doors or thickness of walls, &c. All left me fractions in plus or 
minus. The metre only, strange as it may appear, answering in 
every case to the exact dimensions. I will not pass any private 
opinion on this fact, but will leave the inference to others. 

The building is entered by a single doorway, Im. 15c. wide 
and Im. 5Jc. high, facing southerly. Two doors lead from the 




Surveyed Dec.3'''^ /S/S 
• -^Q-^ BY '-'S^ ~ 

/li/Gi/sms le plongeon. 



The HbuotykePrditinoCo. 220 Devohshihe St Bostoh. 



43 

front room into the sanctuary. The one opposite to the exterior 
doorway is of exactly the same dimensions; wliilst that on the 
left is somewhat narrower, being Om. 9oc. wide. 

The lintels of these doorways consist of round sapote beams, 
about 15 centimetres in diameter. 

Those of the two inner doorways are literally covered by the 
nanies of those who have visited the place at different epochs. 

In the inner room, just opposite the enti'ance doorway and 
the corresponding inner one, stands the altar. It is of masonry, 
Irn. 4oG. long by On>. 6oc. wide and Oin. 50c. high. 

It was on this altar that the Spanish adventurers found tlie 
images of the female idols which were destroyed by theii- fanatical 
and ignorant chaplain, who replaced the Maya idols by the image 
of the Virgin Mary, and celebrated mass. 

Entering the building, on the left-hand side, may be seen 
an excavation about eighteen inches in diameter, made in 
the floor by a certain Dr. Fabregas, who came in years past 
in search of the treasure. From my heart I thanked him for 
having opened this hole, and saved me the trouble. Not- 
withstanding it is not more than two feet deep, it afforded me a 
good opportunity for studying the construction of the platform. 
I found it to be an oblong inclosure surrounded by massive walls 
of strong masonry Om. 75 centimetres wide and 2 m. 50 
centimetres high, filled up with loose stones carefully piled one 
xipon another. An entrance was left on the noith side to 
penetrate the inclosure and arrange the stones. I discovei'ed 
it closed by a huge stone four feet high and eighteen inches wide. 
I held my own counsel, for many eyes were following me wher 
ever I went, but I made np my mind to bring the proper tools 
and remove it at ray next visit. The floor of the rooms is made 
of concrete. Even to-day, concrete floors are those most gener- 
ally in use in Yucatan. 

The edifice, surrounded, at its base, by a counter-fort Om. 30 
centimetres wide and Om. 60 high, that served the double purpose 
of strengthening the walls of the building, and offering a com- 
fortable seat to the ministrants or to the pilgrims, does not 
occupy the centre of the platform ; but is so placed as to leave a 
space of 3 metres, 10 centimetres in front between the counter-fort 



4i 

and the edge of the platform and only Om. 30 centimetres in the 
rear. 

A stairway 2m. .05c. wide composed of 5 steps, each 1 metre 
deep, and encased between massive piers 1.15 wide and 1.75 long 
by two metres high, serving in lien of balustrade, leads to the 
top of the platform. Four metres from the foot of that stairway 
and fronting the entrance of the shrine was another altar of the 
same size and construction as that within the holy of holies. It 
is at the foot of this altar, on its south side, that I disinterred 
the precious specimen of ceramic art, that I take to be the head 
of a priestess, fi-om the heiid-dress. It might have been also one 
of the images of the goddess, wrought to the semblance of one 
of her devotees. 

The soil between the shrine and the other ruined buildings was 
once upon a time leveled by hand, and covered with a layer of 
betun (concrete) Om. 20 centimetres thick, beautifully polished 
and painted white. So was the area in front of the edifice to the 
very edge of the cliff. To-day the wind has blown coarse sand 
over it to a depth varying from one to four and five feet. 

The survey of the monument and its surroundings, operations 
incomprehensible to the motley crowd of curious individuals who 
had followed in our wake, having occupied several hours, it being 
about 3 o'clock P. M., we concluded it was time to retrace our 
way to Dolores, if we wished to reach the village before night, 
notwithstanding our intense desire to rake the sand in search 
of any precious object that might have escaped destruction at the 
hands of the iconoclasts, whose handiwork was everywhere 
visible, in the scattered debris of votive offerings, that strew the 
sand in front of the shrine and around the exteiior altar to the 
very brink of the precipice. We refrained ; thei'e were too many 
witnesses eagerly watching every one of our steps and motions. 
So taking a parting glance at the shrine and promising to repeat 
our visit as soon as possible, we regained the spot whei-e our boat 
lay riding nt anchor, trying on the road to picture to our minds 
the scenes witnessed by these old, weather-beaten, silent walls. 

I wanted to engage Don Ambrosio for the next day, as I 
desired to take photogiaphic views of the ruins, and continue 
explorations. I had seen enough of them to tempt my appetite 
and make me long for something more. What should I find by 



45 

removing the large stone that closed the entrance to the chamber 
I suspected to exist under the shrine 1 I knew that the ancient 
Mayas were wont to bury their JTins or priests in such apart- 
ments built expressly under the temples, and with them the 
badges of their profession. 

But Don Ambrosio was not to be obtained. He had to finish 
some business and start immediately for Cozurael. He offered 
however to accompany me again to the ruins, on his return to the 
island, which he said would be in a few days, if I wanted him. 
Day after day passed, and I was unable to obtain the means of 
again visiting the shrine. Several times I was tempted to start 
on foot, but it was a serious undertaking. It would take me at 
least. half a day to reach the place. Then I should certainly be 
exhausted, unfit for work. It was useless to go unless I made up 
my mind to pass the night there, exposed without shelter to wind 
and rain if it happened to be bad weather. 

At last, on the 28th of Decembei", Seiior Don Salustino^ 
Castro, a farmer from Cozumel, who had come for a few weeks 
to Isla Mujeres, and whose acquaintance I had made, offered to 
make a pleasure trip to the ruins with his wife and children. I 
accepted with pleasure his invitation to join him, and happy to 
have the opportunity, told him of my intention to remove the 
large stone on the North side of the platform. 

When we reached our destination and v.^hile each one was 
enjoying, to the best of his fancy, the dolcefar niente, the neces- 
sary consequence of a good repast, lying or reclining on the 
sandy soil as it best suited the fancy of the individual, I began to 
examine the ground in front of the shrine. At the foot of the 
altar, on the South side, I saw a place that had all the appearance 
of having once been disturbed. 

I called for a shovel, one of the servants was soon by my side 
with the instrument called for, and in order to show his willing- 
ness to please me, unasked he thrust with all his might the tool 
into the soft sand, and with a smile of pride at his exploit, 
brought forth a foot within a sandal, that bore unmistakable 
marks of having just been amputated from its corresponding leg. 
He was about to repeat the operation when I swiftly interposed. 
Falling on my knees, in presence of all the picnicking party, 
with my own hands, I carefully removed the damp sand from 
7 



46 

around an incense burner, of which the whole body of a female 
in a squatting posture had occupied the front part. It had lain 
there for ages, but, alas ! it was now before us in pieces. The 
blow from the shovel had been sufficient to destroy the soft, 
fragile work of art. Happily the face had escaped injury. It was 
a great fortune in a terrible misadventure. 

These terra cotta objects when first discovered are very tender, 
the dampness having permeated the whole clay during the centu- 
ries that they have been buried. They are therefore exceedingly 
pliable. Before attempting to remove them it is necessary to 
leave them exposed for an hour or so to the action of the air and 
to the rays of the sun, when they recover part of their pristine 
hardness, and can be handled without so much danger of damage. 
For hours all hands were busy searching in the sand endeavor- 
ing to discover some other entire object, but without success. 

The servants of Don Salustino with the aid of a crowbar 
removed the large stone on the North side of the platform, and a 
small doorway lay open before us, and we could then plainly see 
that the whole plattorm was made of dry stones carefully super- 
posed. We removed some, but soon abandoned the job, fearing 
lest the whole structure, which is in a very ruinous condition, 
should tumble upon us, and catch some one as a rat in a trap.», 
We remained satisfied that, if any thing is buried among the 
stones, it can only be obtained by running the risk of seeing the 
entire edifice crumble over those engaged in the vrork. Lejeu 
nen vaut pas la Chandelle, et le coiit en quitte le gout. 

That day I made excavations in several places in the level space 
North of the shrine, and discovered that, as I said before, the 
whole soil between this structure and the other ruined buildings 
had been and is yet covered with concrete, highly polished and 
painted white. It was now about 2 o'clock P. M. Satisfied with 
our day's work, we began our journey home, happy with the 
consciousness to have in part saved from destruction a rare 
specimen of the Maya ceramic art. Don Fermin Mondaca, who 
has lived for more than twenty years on the island, and the oldest 
inhabitants, have assured me that this was the finest object that 
to their knowledge had been found in that place. 

Four days later, that is to say, on the 2d of January, 1877, Don 
Pedro Toredano, having been able at last to put some men and 



47 

one of his boats at my disposal, for the last time we returned to 
the ruins with our photographic instruments, and took views of 
the shiine, from the altar near wliich I had disinterred the beau- 
tiful female head. Desiring to varnish the negatives, in order to 
be able to carry them safely home, I put some live coals in the 
bottom of the incense burner discovered on the 28th, and entered 
the shrine to be protected from the wind, when lo ! a slight 
vapor arose from among the coals, and a sweet, delicious perfume 
filled again the antique shrine, as in the days of its splendor, 
wlien the devotees and pilgrims from afar used to make their 
offeiings and burn the mixture, carefully prepared, of styrax, 
copal and other aromatic rosins, on the altar of the goddess. 

I remain, very sincerely, yours, 

AUG™s Le PLONGEON, M.D. 

In connection with tlie above communication, extracts 
from letters of Dr. Le Plongeon, of date July 18 and August 
9, 18Y8, are introduced as bearing upon the character of 
the terra cotta objects now under consideration and as 
valuable reflections upon Maya art. He writes : — 

" In answer to your inquiries about terra cottas in Yucatan, I 
will say that I have studied with great care the specimens that 
have come into my hands. But they have been comparatively 
few, the locality where found was unknown, and I have not 
acquired sufficient knowledge to decide upon the subject authori- . 
tatively. The best specimens I have seen came from Isla Mujeres 
(the head now in your possession), and the " Goddess of the Bees " 
from Cozumel, now in the Museum at Merida. They are not 
the productions of the inhabitants of the islands, since there is 
no clay {can cad— red earth) to be found there. These pieces were 
imported from the main land, and must have been manufactured 
in the eastern part of the Peninsula, where this kind of earth 
exists in abundance in certain districts. The broken jar, pieces 
of which I found scattered at various depths among the loose 
stones that formed the monument raised over the statue of Chaac- 
mol, was of a very coarse manufacture and the loss of its lid, 



48 

which Avas entire, and placed over the remains of the brains of 
Chaacmol in the Vcivge stone urn, near hi-; head, is to be lamented. 
A friend, while examining it, let it fall by accident and it was 
smashed into fragments. 

Before I should dare to pronounce upon the advancement of 
cei'amic ait in Mayapan and hence determine the probable age of 
each specimen, I must disinter the pieces myself, and by the age 
of the monument where it was found, determine that of the terra 
cotta. One thing however is clear to my mind, that the ceramic 
art kept pace with that of scul])ture, and that at a certain pei'iod 
Mayapan boasted of very skilful artists who could transform the 
clay into beautiful objects of art, like the head in your possession. 
But there were, at the same time, inferior artists whose works 
were not as costly, more within the means of the people in gen- 
eral, and consequently more abundant ; and these were the tyros 
in the art that filled the market with their productions, as the 
Italian plaster-of-Paris statuette venders do in our days. There 
were potters who manufactured common pottery, like our com- 
mon earthen ware. Who will dare compare the artists who can 
transform kaoUne and petxmse into the beautiful vases of 
Sevres, and the workman wlio makes our common plates, cups 
and saucers ! Yet all these tiungs are made at the same epoch s 
and may be produced from the same material. ****** 

At the village of St. Michael, in the island of Cozumel, is the 
spot where Cortez is said to have left a cross for the adoration of 
the Indians, and near by a church was built, whose walls still 
remain. Here in digging to search for treasure, said to be buried 
near it, was found by chance the tei'ia cotta incense burner, 
the so-called Goddess of the Bees, now in Merida.* * * * * 

Do not mistake in regard to the head from the Isla Miijeres. 
It was not an idol but the portrait of some high priestess placed 
in front of an incense burner, like the figures fi'om Guinea Grass 
in the collection now sent you, or the above named incense burner 
in the Museo Yucateco, of which you have a photograph. I 
can not say how high it was when entire, for it was broken under 
the sand ; but judging from the bottom of the burner that I used 
to cany live coals into the shiine to varnish my negatives, I should 
suppose that it was about 18 inches high, like that at Merida, or 
it may have been a little higher. It was well pi-eserved by the 



49 

accumulation of loose sand around it, and so are many pieces of 
the votive offeriugs that strew the sand in front of the sanctuary, 
and since destroyed in part by the hand of man." 

We may now safely turn for information to that unfailing 
and authentic source of lio'ht on the customs and usages of 
the Mayas, Bishop Landa.* He says : " The very travellers 
carried incense w^ith them in a small dish. At night 
vi^herever they arrived they placed togetlier three small 
stones, depositing upon them grains of incense. Before 
these they set three otlier flat stones and placed incense 
upon them, praying to the God, et cet. **** They had some 
idols of stone, but few in number, others of wood of small 
size, although not so numerous as those in terra cotta. f 
**** The priest then burnt incense mingled with forty- 
nine kernels of ground corn. The nobles placed their 
incense in the brasero of the idol, and offered incense in 
their turn." 

Lord Kingsborough's collection has numerous plates rep- 
resenting probable incense burners, but none of them have 
figures attached that will compare in artistic finish with 
the face from Mujeres Island. The text of Captain 
Dupaix (2d Expedition, 1806), says in regard to one of 
these braseros, "you may perceive in the rear of the figure 
a cylindrical tube suitable to contain in its cavity pieces of 
pitch or some other combustible material, and which might 
have served as the receptacle of a torch at their religious 
festivals."! 

Amono- the interestinsi; collections from Guatemala in the 



* Piclation des choses de Yucatan, de Diego de Landa. Paris, 18(34, page 
157. t lb., page 213. 

§ Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities, London. 1830, vol. V., page 254. 
lb., vol. IV., Figures 78, 103 and 107. [Illustrations.] 



50 

Peabodj Mnseuni of Archseology at Cambridge, are several 
small terra cotta figures, liaving vases above the head- 
dress that are blackened on the inside by the use of fire. 

The inceilse usiiallj^ burned by the Mayas was copal. This 
resinous gum is insoluble in most liquids, and resists the 
action of time like amber, while on being burned it gives 
forth a fragrance resembling frankincense. Tlierefore it is 
not incomprehensible tliat the incense vase from Mujeres 
Island sliould have retained enouorh of the fraofrant ffum to 
astonish a person experimentally heating it, as is mentioned 
by Dr. Le Plongeon at the conclusion of liis communication. 

We have Hubert Howe Bancroft as authority that the 
Maya idols thus far discovered are few in number, none of 
them equal as monoliths to those of Copan in Guatemala, in 
point of size. But in point of artistic finish we should give 
the first place to those of the Maya country, as is generally 
conceded to its architecture and sculpture. The Uevista de 
MSrida, of July 4, 1878, describes a small statue lately dis- 
covered, and answering to Landa's account of Maya idols of 
stone. The writer calls it iin j^&fiueno Chaacmol^ repre- 
senting an Indian character of importance, judging from its 
costume. " It is seated upon a seat placed on a pedestal or 
throne, which in the rear loses itself in the bust of the 
statue. The hands are extended over the knees, and the 
erect head has a gloomy, serious and majestic countenance, 
as of a monarch giving audience to his subjects. It has a 
spacious forehead, above whi(;h the hair is cut horizontally. 
The nose is decidedly aqueline, the lips are moderately 
large, and the upper lip is covered by a moustache cut like 
the hair, which leads the antiquarian to suppose that this 
type belonged to a superior race from that which the con- 



51 

querors encountered. It is shod with the traditional sandals 
or alpargatas. Upon the breast is an escutclieon with ra3'S, 
whicli perhaps represents tlie sun, and the shoulders are 
covered by a mantle, which is recognized as composed of. 
feathers. The seat, throne, and statue itself are of a sing'.e 
piece of stone, and together measure about two feet in height. 
It was found in a vault in the neighborhood of Izamal, 
. which permits us to suppose that it was an idol, or that it 
]-epresented a king or a cliaracter of the ancient Maya aristoc- 
racy. It was painted flesh-color, and notwithstanding it lias 
been repeatedly washed, it still retains traces of coloring 
closely adhering to it. The stone is now porous, and the 
■archseologist supposes he finds niarks of three or four cen- 
turies which have rolled over the statue." 

The desire is expressed by the writer of the article just 
quoted that this figure may be presented to the Museo 
Yucateco, and preserved there, without the unfortunate fate 
which awaited the greater Chaacmol (the statue which was 
carried to the city of Mexico by order of Government in 
1877 and is now placed in the National Museum). There 
seems to be good reason to suppose that the above described 
figure was an idol. Its size and coloring agree with some of 
those hitherto accepted as such, while the fact of its being 
hidden away is in accord with the explanation of the rarity 
of such objects, as they were often secreted by the Indians 
from the knowledge of the Ecclesiastics, who had caused 
their destruction in numerous authenticated autos da-fe. 

Foremost among the Maya idols which have escaped de- 
struction, may be ranked the gigantic stucco head at Izamal, 
a place famous among the Indians at the time of the Con- 
quest as one of their most sacred resorts. Though of rude 



52 

workmanship and of inferior art, it deserves to be alluded to 
in connection with tlie terra cotta figures of Yucatan, as 
stucco is also exceedingly rare in external ornamentation, 
stone being generally employed for the purpose in Maya 
buildings. It is correctly pictured in Stephens's Travels in 
Yucatan, vol. ii., page 434. The relief is a colossal human 
head upon the face of an artificial perpendicular wall, and 
has a stern, liarsh expression like that of some of the bas- 
reliefs in stone at the ruins of Uxmal. The head is 7 feet 
6 inches in height, and 7 feet in width, and the ground-work 
is of projecting stones, which are covered with stucco. A 
stone 1 foot 6 inches long protrudes from the cliin, serving, 
perhaps, for a copal altar. The face was evidently designed 
to be seen from a distance, as its extraordinary proportions 
indicate. Upon the left appears the totem or emblazonment 
of the divinity portrayed in relief. 

But enough has been written to draw attention to tlie terra 
cotta figure, and to show the probable use that the vase sto 
wliich it was attached subserved. It is most interesting from 
its merit as a work of art, and it is curious as being found 
near a shrine on the island famous for female idols at the 
time of its discovery. Dr. Le Plongeon's supposition that 
the face may have been moulded to resemble some particular 
female character or priestess, is not at all impro])able. It is 
to be hoped that future excavations in a country so abound- 
ing in antiquarian material, will furnish us with other and 
more perfect specimens of Maya art. . 



53 

NOTE. 

A work of much interest to the student of American Archteo- 
loi^y is now being issued in the form of a general history of 
Yucatan, in three volumes, of which tlie first and second have 
already been published. It bears the title Historia de Yucatan 
desde la epoca mas remota hasta nuestros dias, For Eligio 
Ancona. Jlerida, 1818. Imprenta de 3L lleredia Argiielles. 
The first volume treats of the ancient histoiy of the province, the 
second of the period of the Spanish rule, and the third will con- 
tain the modern history of that country. This work will more 
than supply the place of Historia de Yucatan, For Fr. Diego 
Lopez de Cogolhido, Madrid, 1 688, and its reprint Los tres 
siglos de la dominacion Esp)anola en Yucatan, For idem, idem, 
Merida, 1845. As both of these editions are extremely rare and 
contain nothing of modern history, the new work is much 
needed. 

For the proper understanding of investigations and dis- 
coveiies in the Maya country, access to a historical map is neces- 
sary. This want has now been fully supplied by the publication 
of Mapa de la Feninsula de Yucatan, edicion de 1878. by 
Seilores Joaquin Hiibbe and Andres Aznar Perez, assisted as to 
important data by the suggestions of our late associate, the 
lamented archaeologist and philologist. Dr. Carl Hermann Bereudt. 
It is a valuable addition to the topographical history of this portion 
of the United States of Mexico, and gives a most correct plan 
of the States of Yucatan and Campeachy, together with the 
greater part of Tabasco and Belize and portions of Guatemala 
and Chiapas. This map designates places occupied by the beau- 
tiful Maya ruins, and has been prepared with great care for offi- 
cial and educational uses in Yucatan. It is a work of interest to 
students of the history and archaeology of the central portions 
of America. The map is 28x36, and may be obtained from Dr. 
George E. Shiels, No. 896 Broadway, New York. 




<, 



Specimen of the figures com- 
posing the mural paintings of 
the funeral chamber in Chaac- 
mol Monument, Chichen-Itza. 
Traced by Dr. Le Plongeon and 
his wife, fron» the originals, in 
the month of November, 1875. 




r-^™*>i.5v^^.a'H'^«^f»«^ 



N 



s 

r 







\ 

J 




AECBLEOLimjICAL COMMOlCAiiO:S OS IUCa . A^. 




\ 



■^^^Vx 




ARCHiEOLOfilClL C0^MUM:CATI0X 0^ TUCATA^\ 



BT DK. ACGCSTUS I,E PLOXGEOX. 



[Proceedings of American Autiqaarian Society, October 21, ISTS.] 



The following letter is intended by the writer as a first 
contribittion to the Proceedings of this Society since his 
appointment to menjbership, and as a recognition of his 
satisfaction at the interest manifested by the Society in his 
explorations and discoveries. It is accompanied by copies 
from a photograph of the Statue of Chaacmol, of tracings 
of a Mural Painting, and of a Carved Lintel from Chichen- 
Itza, all of which are herewith reproduced : — 

CoLONT OF British Honduras, 

Belize, tTidi/ 15, 1878. 
Stephen Samsburt, Jr., Esq., Worcester, !>[ass. : 

Dear Sir. — Yon will see in my communication on the Isla 
Mnjeres, that I have tbnnd the three houses made of stones and 
lime that were the oratories mentioned by Herrera, and on my 
plan you have the exact position they occupy respecting each 
other.* Of the towns spoken of by Torqueraada, and chapels 
with steps, their roofs being covered with straw, I have also 
spoken to you.j They are on the main land opposite. The 
largest city is JTankun, but in JTisuckte and JiTeco are temples 
and altars and columns, while nothing of that sort exists on Isla 
Mujeres, and those of Cozumel are on quite a diminutive scale. 
The largest to be found at the time of the conquest was about 
half a mile from the village of St. Miguel, on the north side. 

Father Gonzales tells me he saw the statue of Chaacmol as it 
noAv appears in the city of Mexico. It is not within the museum, 
but rests upon a pedestal in the open court-yard of that establish- 
ment. This is an unfortunate position, for by this time all the 
paint put on the stone by the artist who sculptured it must have 
disappeared, washed away by the rain. 

* nistoria cle7as Indias. For Antonio de Herrera. Madrid, 1601. Tom. 
1. Decade II., Lib. IY.,cap. 17, 

f Jilonarchia Indiana. For F. Juan de Torquemada. Madrid, 1725. Lib. 
rV., cap. 3. 



\ 



58 

The upper lip of the statue is veiy thin, and in portraits 
painted on the walls and carved on the stones in the lodge of 
the queen at the north end of the gymnasium at Chichen- 
Itza, he is represented, as in his statue, ' with the upper 
teeth discovered, which are filed like a saw, as are those of the 
head in your possession from Isla Mujeres. I have seen only 
these two heads with the teeth filed in that way. Besides what 
Bishop Landa says of the practice in Yucatan, it is known that 
tribes of Indians in the interior of Brazil practice this custom 
to-day, as do also nations of the west coast of Equatorial 
Africa. Were we to judge of the Itzaes as Judge Morgan 
and others wish us to do, by analogy, we must be convinced that 
Landa, in that, as in many other things, told us the truth. I 
have studied his work very carefully, as published by Brasseur de 
Bourbourg, and as far as I am able to judge from what I posi- 
tively know of the customs, habits, domestic and public life, and 
religious ceremonies, of the ancient dwellers in Chichen-Itza, as 
portrayed iu brilliant colors and accurate drawings on the walls of 
what I call the Chaacraol monument, I may say, without fear of 
being contradicted by men of intelligence, that many of these 
pictured customs are accurately described by Landa, although 
impaired and changed in some degree by the manners and cus- 
toms of the different races that invaded the country after these 
monuments were erected. 

I am more particularly willing to credit the relations of in- 
telligent eye-witnesses, who have lived iu a country, and tell me 
of the ways and mode of life of its inhabitants, when I find there 
pictures and sculptures agreeing with such narratives, than I am 
to give faith to the speculations of the wisest men who have not 
had the same opportunities of observation. So I prefer to 
believe what Diego de Landa says of what he saw with his own 
eyes than what others imagine must have been, judging by com- 
parison and analogy with the manners and customs of other 
tribes and nations. 

I have passed four years of my life among the monuments of 
Yucatan, searching every corner of them, scrutinizing every stone, 
asking every portrait or sculpture to tell me something of the 
lives on earth of the pei'sonages they represent. How far they 
have responded to my enquiries, the discovery of the statue of 



59 

Chaacmol, the knowledge of the place where his brother ITiiun- 
cays statue lies concealed, and of the location of the vaults contain- 
ing the librai'ies of the II-3Ienes, (records of the wise men) will 
show. What else I know of their secrets, if I am able to resume 
my work among the ruins of Chichen-Itza, the scientific world will 
see. At present I can offer two more statues, that of the dying 
tiger with a human head, showing on its body the wounds, the 
cause of its death, typical of what happened to the great warrior, 
Chaacmol (spotted tiger), and another of white calcareous 
stone, like Chaacraol's, lying exactly in the same position on its 
pedestal, somewhat smaller than the first, and unfortunately Avith- 
out a head, Avhich I have searched for witliout success. Besides, 
I have many basreliefs ready for transportation, together with 
ancient gigantic heads, sculptured in the round. These heads, 
and the statue of the dying tiger are represented in your col- 
lection of photographs. 

That I should be able to speak of the customs and manners of 
the Itzaes at the time that the beautiful Kinich-Kakmo and 
Chaacmol reigaed at Chichen Itza, should surprise no one, since 
they are vividly painted on the walls of the funeral chamber of 
the Chaacmol monument, and on those of the apartments in the 
second story of the palace and museum.* Part of these mural 
paintings have been restored by Mrs. Le Plongeon and by me, 
and we have therefore studied them line by line. It requires no 
great effort of the imagination to understand, when one sees it 
pictorially represented, that it was customary for the H-Menes to 
cover themselves with a mantle of blue and yellow plumes when 
consulting the lines produced by fire on the shell of an armadillo 
or a turtle, in order to read the destiny of a person (just as the 
Chinese used to do), on seeing the scene so plainly represented as 
in the drawing that I send you, which is but a fraction of those 
on the walls of the room so often mentioned. These two figures, 
part of a more complicated design, represent the queen Kinich- 
Kaknio (recognized by her seven blue feathers), when a child, con- 
sulting an H-lien, in order to know her destiny. Her fate is 



* Some of these names are translations of Maya words used to designate par- 
ticular buildings by the Indians themselves, and others of the names have been 
given by later travellers, and by the writer of this letter, as descriptive of the 
uses for which it is supposed the buildings were intended. [S. S., Jr.] 



60 

written in the form and colors of tlie scroll starting from the neck 
of the Il-Jfen. 

I will now indulge in a little translation (when in fact imagina- 
tion does the greatest part of the work), in the reading of the 
Scroll starting from the priests throat of the tigiire in the mural 
painting I send you. First, the meaning of the colors. These 
we know to a certainty. Blue meant htOiness, sanctity, chastity, 
— hence happiness, from the blue vault of heaven ; the human 
victims who ofiered themselves, or were oflered as a propitiatory 
sacriiice to the divinity, were painted blue and considered holy. 
Then violet. It also meant happiness, but without the idea of 
sanctity ; rather happiness produced by an innocent and pure life. 
Then green — wisdom, knowledge — hence power, war. The feath- 
ers that the chiefs carried on their heads in war, or in the peaceful 
occupation of scientific researches, were painted green, as also 
araoiig the high chiefs in Mexico. This ornament of the chiefs 
is mentioned in the essay of Mr. Ad. F. Bandelier, in the tenth 
Report of the Peabody Museum. Then yellow — all evil passions. 

We have also the form of the scroll to consider. Now it starts 
from the throat of the JT-JIen, a blue, well rounded sraootb curve 
"which indicates a happy iniaucy free from troubles, etc., &g. (She 
is a princess). Then adolescense — free from care, tilled with inno- 
cence and happiness (^iolet). Then slie enteis into womanhood. 
She is in love with a wise and fierce warrior entitled to carry three 
featheis on his head (Chaacmol has three feathers), and during her 
matrimonial lite, she will enjoy a shoi t period of bliss and happi- 
ness. But after her youth she will experience the efiects of the 
evil passions of some one who will persecute her and cause her to 
Buffer. Hence the yellow crooked streak, the end of which turns 
from her, whilst the thiee feathers of her husband overshadow 
ai:d protect her. This may be a beginning to solve the riddle of 
the mm-al painiings when my tracings are placed in the hands of 
those expert in rebus solsing. These two figures are merely part 
of a group, nearest the ground, on the right hand side as you 
enter the fnneral chamber. 

If the Peabody Museum or the Smithsonian Institution desire to 
pu: chase my collection of tracings of mural paintings, 1 will sell 
it in order to procure funds to continue xxty researches. The 
whole collection will comprise as many as twenty-five plates, nearly 
all between 30 and '66 inches in length. Either a copy of the 



61 

tracings can be thus purchased or the original tracings with the 
copyright. They represent war scenes with javelins flying in all 
directions, warriors fighting, shouting, assuming all sorts of ath- 
letic positions, scenes from domestic life, maniage ceremonies, 
temples with complete domes, proving that the Itza architects 
were acquainted with the circular arch, but made use of the trian- 
gular pioVjably because it was the custom and style of architecture 
of the time and country. 

I began my woik in Yucatan, I will not say without precon- 
ceived ideas, but with the fixed intention of finding either the 
proof or the denial of an opinion formed during my ramblings 
among the ruins of Tiahuanuco, that the cradle of the world's 
civilization is thi.s continent on which we live. Ready to retract 
such opinion if I should find plausible evidence that I was wrong, 
I cared too little for the theoiies that others have advanced, to 
allow my mind to be influenced by them. I judge for myself; if 
my conclusions are the same as theirs, it is a proof to me that I 
am not far from the truth. But I prefer to listen to the mute yet 
eloquent voices of the painters, sculptors and architects, who have 
written the histoiy of their nation on the stones of the monu- 
ments reared to pei'petuate and make known to succeeding gen- 
erations the events recorded by them. 

Let us take an example — the very ancient origin of these monu- 
ments. In some buildings in the larger towns are seen rows of 
columns of hewn stones, all equal in size, and containing the 
same number (eight) of stones. Xo traces of roofs ever having 
been supported by these stones are to be found in their vicinity. 
Stephens, having seen many of them at Ake and Chichen, could 
not imagine why they had been erected. Their very construction, 
the upper or capping stone being supported on four smaller ones, 
isolated from those underneath, precludes the very thought of 
their having sei-ved to sustain a roof of any kind. Yet they had 
an object, and what was it ? Let us see if the chroniclers knew 
anything about their use ? Yes, all did. Landa, Lizana, Cogol- 
ludo, and others, tell us they were called JK^atiins (epochs), and 
served as calendars to record the age of the nation or town. 

Cogolludo tells us that every twenty yeai-s, amid the rejoicings 

of the people, a new stone was added to those already piled up in 

certain edifices, and that each stone marked an epoch of twenty 

years in the life of the nation. That after seven had thus been 

9 



62 

placed one above the other, then began the Ahau-Katun; and 
every five years a small stone was placed on each corner of the 
uppermost, beginning at the eastern (likintan), then the western 
(chikintan), then the noithern (xamantayi), lastly, the southern 
(noholtan). At that time a great festivity took place, and the 
capping stone was laid upon the top of the sraalles ones. Landa, in 
his " Cosas de Yucatan" tells us the same thing. Now examine 
the plates of the town of Ake in your collection ; there you will 
find the photographs of the monument supporting the columns of 
the JCatuns, and the columns themselves. See how they corres- 
pond to the above-mentioned description. Maj'- we not consider 
the question of the extreaie antiquity of some of the monuments 
of Yucatan as settled, since the thirty-six columns represent (to 
the mind) an undeniable lapse of 5760 years from the time the 
first stone was placed on the platform until the place was aban- 
doned, and we know that this very town of Ake was still inhab- 
ited at the time of the Spanish conquest ?* 

In Chichen, I counted as many as 120 of these columns, and 
there were many more. True, many lay prostrate on the ground, 
and we cannot be certain that they were completed, but this is a 
matter easy to ascertain by counting every stone of the ICatuns, 
which are easily distinguished from any others. 

The evidences that intercourse existed in very remote times 
between this continent and those of Asia and Africa, are as 
follows: On the same walls, already many times mentioned 
(Chichen-Itza), we see very tall figures of people with small 
heads, thick lips, curly short hair or wool on their heads (negroes). 
We always see them as standard or parasol bearers, but never 
engaged in actual warfiire. Sculptured on the pillars, and par- 
ticularly on the columns of the castle, and also on the walls of the 
queen's chamber and on those of her lodge in the gymnasium or 
Tennis court, are the marked features of long-bearded men. (See 
your collection of ancient types). These seem to have Semitic or 
Assyrian features, and on the slabs found by Layard in Nineveh 
ai"e seen sculptured male and female characters with true American 
types, crowns of feathers on their heads, the females wearing the 
very identical dress (auac.u) of the Peruvian Indian women. 



* May not the ptreater part of tliese columns have served as s3"mbolical history 
set up as memorials of past antiquity? [S. S., Jr.] 



63 

Here fiirnres with turbans on their heads are not wanting, and in 
a few flays I hope to be able to send yon a terra cotta found in 
this colony, representing a character wearing one of these Asiatic 
head-dresses. 

After reading what Landa tells us of the customs of the inhabit- 
ants of Yucatan and comparing them with the habits of the 
Carians, as described by Herodotus, it suggests itself to me that 
these Carians, who were the first known rovers of the seas long 
before the Phoenicians, came from Mayap m or Central America ; 
I say Mayapan because of the large number of Maya words found 
in the ancient Greek, and the many Assyrian and even Hebrew 
or Semitic words, to speak more accurately, found in the Maya, 
which would seem to indicate intercommunication. That fact 
can not be purely accidental. I must say, however, that I have 
never seen in Mayapan any vestiges whatever of Phoenician 
writings, architecture, or civilization. 

The civilization of Mayapan stands entirely apart and distinct 
from any other. It must" on no account be confounded with the 
Aztec or Mexican, as is often done. The Itzaes (wise and industri- 
ous men as their name implies) and the Mexicans are two distinct 
races. Neither their language, nor religion, nor their customs, had 
many points of similitude, and it is well known that the Mexican 
element was introduced on the Peninsula as soldiery by the laws 
of Mani only a few years before the Spanish conquest, and is con- 
sequently an importation of recent date. 

As to the existence of giants and pigmies in remote antiquity 
at Mayapan, there can be no doubt. We see their figures repre- 
sented on the mural paintings and on the sculptured walls; and, 
more to the point, their bones are from time to time disinterred. 
The edifices of Ak6 give the impression that they were the work 
of a very tall and uncouth people, and the buildings on the 
eastern coast and on the islands of Mujeres and Cozumel give evi- 
dences of habitation by a diminutive race not more than two feet 
in stature. Tradition among the Indians refers frequently to the 
Aluxob (pigmies), and they ascribe all the monuments to them.f 

t Statements, which seem hnprobable, are so habitually made in both 
ancient and modern accounts of observations in Mexico and Central America, 
that they may best be left to the future for comment or explanation. 



64 

The writing of the Mayas is different from that of Copan, 
Palenque, or Mexico. True, sentences or ideas are written at Pa- 
lenque and Copan in squares like those in the Maya country, but 
on comparing carefully their different writings I could ])erceive 
only a very slight resemblance. The writing of sentences or 
ideas in squares does not, by any means, imply that the characters 
were the same. The Germans, the English, the Latin races, and 
the Greeks, all wrote their ideas in straight lines fiom left to right, 
but their languages and alphabets are very different, while 
containing some characters that are similar. So with the Maya 
and other writings of Central Ameiica. 

The Maya MSS. and hieroglyphics* since we must give that 
name to their characters, must be studied by themselves, without 
reference to those of Copan and Palenque, or the pictorial records 
of Mexico. Landa has preserved the Maya alphabet, and Bras- 
seur de Bourbourg has the credit of having discovered and pub- 
lished it. He has explained it at some length in the introduction 
of his translation of the Codex Troano. I think he has done 
more towards the advancement of our knowledge in the Maya 
literature than all the jealous impugaers who have refused to 
accept his translation. It seems to me that, since they rejected 
his work and scorned him, some one of them should have come for- 
ward to offer a better rendering of the Codex. No one has done 
so because no one is capable of doing it. " La critique est facile, 
mais I'art est difficile," and until I can do better I will accept as 
good Brasseur de Bourbourg's work and translation, for he had 
more opportunities for studying the Maya characters and language 
than the French archaeologists who have not accepted his inter- 
pretation. 

I believe, in ancient times as to-day, the tide of emigration of 
the human race following the course of the sun, has been from 
East to West. This is natural ; the conical motion of the earth 
causes the ocean to submerge the eastern sides of continents 
whilst it elevates the western coasts, and men as other animals 
retreat before the invading waters. But I also believe that, at an 
epoch difficult to determine, there was a partial emigration from 
West to East; from this continent to the Western coast of 
Africa and the Mediterranean, and from the Western coast of 
Asia to America ; as we see in our day the Chinese abandoning 



65 

their native flowery empire to flock to California ; and that the 
emigration then as now has not been suflicient to impart the 
customs of tlie mother country to the people among whom they 
landed ; and that, as the Carians of old in the Mediterranean and 
on the coast of Asia Minor, have ended by disappearing — by being 
swallowed up by the more populous surrounding nations, — so the 
emigrants from the Western coast of Asia have been swallowed 
up by the American nations, leaving however, in some places in 
America, as proofs of their existence, their almond eyes and some 
other of their physical characteristics, together with a few of 
their religious superstitions and practices. 

Concerning the historical value of the statue of Chaacmol, I 
would say that, at the time of the Spanish conquest, the tradi- 
tion of three brothers having governed the country at the same 
time, at a remote period, was prevalent among the inhabitants of 
Mayapan. Some of the chroniclers have mentioned it in their 
writings. The legend of these three rulers is to be found among 
all the Indian nations of Central America, with slight variations 
of course from the idiosyncrasies of each tribe and the manner of 
its communication to them by their ancestors. But the main 
fact of the existence of the three brothers stands the same 
throughout their narratives. The mural paintings on the walls of 
the funeral chambers at Chichen-Itza represent the very life of 
these three brothers, whose portraits are seen in vivid colors, and 
are easily recognized also in the bas-reliefs that adorn the Queen's 
room in the Chaacmol monument (you have the photographs in 
your collection) and the lodge or box at the Northern end of the 
gymnasium. In the funeral chamber, the terrible altercation 
between Aac and Chaacmol, which had its termination in the 
murder of the latter by his brother, is represented by large figures, 
three-fourths life size. There Aac is painted holding three spears 
in his hands, typical of the three wounds he inflicted on the back 
of his brother. These wounds are indicated on the statue of the 
dying tiger (symbol of Chaacmol) by two holes near the lumbar 
region and one under the left scapula, proving that the blow was 
aimed at the heart from behind. The two wounds are also 
marked by two holes near each other in the lumbar region, on the 
bas-relief of the tiger eating a human heart that adorned the 
Chaacmol mausoleum (see photograph in your collection). This is 



66 

no play of the imagination, but simply a close scrutiny of the 
stones and a plain reading of the history recorded thereon. 

Aac after the commission of his cowardly act, prompted, we 
infer from the mural painting, by love for his sister in-l;JW 
Kinich-Kakmo, who had preferred her husband Chaacmol to hitn, 
fled for safety to Uxmal and built there the edifice called the 
"House of the Goveinor." There he is represented over the 
door, in the centre of the edifice, sitting on an ornamented seat, 
his feet resting on three flayed bodies, the one in the middle that 
of a woman — typical picture of his triumph over Huuncay, Kinich- 
Kakmo and Chaacmol. The building, " House of the Turtles," at 
Uxmal, standing on the corner of the second platform of the 
" House of the Governor," was the private residence of Aac, 
inscribed with his totem — the turtle, as that rising on the South 
end of the East wall of the gymnasium at Chicheii-Itza is adorned 
with the totem of his brother Chaacmol, a row, or as Stephens 
has it, a procession of tigers. 

Let these few words sufiice to show my view of the historical 
value of the statue discovered by me, the name of which I did 
not give at random, and prove to the American Antiquarian 
Society that, in my investigations, I have not relied on the imagi- 
nation, but have contented myself with i-eading what is written in 
very plain characters. I shall be most happy to do the honors of 
the forests and deserted palaces of the Itzae rulers, when I am able 
to resume my work among their ruins, to any member of the 
Society who will favor me with a visit. Meanwhile, let those who 
desire to become acquainted with the history of the personages 
whose life, memory and deeds, my explorations in Yucatan have 
helped to revive after their long oblivion, study the photographs. 

I hope our friends of the Antiquarian Society have been inter- 
ested in the few terra cottas I have sent you from Honduras. On 
closely examining representations of bas-reliefs from Copan and 
Palenque, my attention has been drawn to the fact that the 
figures are represented sitting cross-legged, and this is surpiising, 
for the Indians of to day never sit in this manner, but always 
squatting on their heels like the Chinese. But the Hindostanese 
are represented sitting cross-legged like the little figure of a 
w^omau among the objects obtained from General Bogran in the 
Honduras collection. 



67 

If I could obtain a sale of my collection of mural tracings, that, 
historically speaking, are of more importance than the statue of 
Chaacmol, because they declare the history of the characters 
they represent, I might take a new start to search for the books 
of the Mayas. Could not the American government ask the 
Mexican for a plaster-of-Paris fac-simile of the Chaacmol statue 
for the Peabody Museum, or the National Museum at Washington, 
and then collect together the other stones, or copies of them, 
relating to the history of this statue? It is sad to see the leaves 
of that history scattei'ed here and there. What does the statue 
individually placed in a Museum mean ? Nothing, of course, 
except as a specimen of sculpture. But when accompanied by 
other stones relating to it, then it forms the body for an episode 
in the life of the Maya nation. 

Yet the small collection, as you will perceive, is interesting in 
more than one point of view — 

1st. The singular instrum.e7it of music, showing that at the 
time they were used the people had some idea of the scale, and 
could contrive even rude instruments by which they were able to 
produce the true notes do, mi, sol, la, si, and perhaps more if we 
understood their instruments better. By chance, blowing it in a 
certain manner I produced a serai-tone also, sol sharp, if I remem- 
ber rightly. 

2d. The little statue loithout a head, sitting cross-legged. 
During my investigations in Yucatan, I have found only two 
small statues without heads sitting in that manner, the one at 
Chichen-Itza, in the observatory (you can see it in one of the 
plates of that monument at the top of the stairs, where I caused 
it to be placed in a niche, which it seems to have occupied in 
ancient time), and the other in the court-yard at the foot of the 
great stairway of the sanctuaiy or Casa del Adevino at Uxmal. 

3d. That, like the Peruvians, the Indians of Honduras made 
their utensils of clay, in the forms of fruit and animals, while the 
Mayas made them generally to repi'esent portions of the human 
body, or of its ludicrous likeness, the monkey. 

Accept my thanks for papers and reports, and believe me, Sir, 

Yours very sincerely, 

AUGTUS Le PLONGEON, M.D. 



NOTES ON YUCATAN 



Bt Mrs. Alice D. Le Plongeon. 



These notes were the substance of a lecture delivered by 
Mrs. Le Plongeon, at Belize, British Honduras, early in 
1878, for the benefit of " The Catholic School," which is 
free to the poor children of that place. The lecture gives 
the impressions of a traveller respecting a portion of this 
continent, destined to receive most careful attention from 
historians and antiquaries. At the close of the lecture,Hor». 
Frsdevcckr. Barlee, Lieutenant-Governor, proposed a vote 
of thanks, in which he handsomely complimented Mrs. 
Le Plongeon on her first effort in the lecture field, which 
motion was supported by the Honorable W. Parker, the 
Supreme Judge of the colony, in fitting terms. The illus- 
trations in the form of photographs were furnished to 
accompany the lecture.* 

We are about to speak on a very dry matter; of old sun- 
scorched stones, piled one upon the other at so remote a period 
that we have to go back ages upon ages in order to arrive at the 
time when civilized men existed on this Continent, and reared 
monuments that not only emulate those of modern times, but 
even approach, in beauty of form and elaborateness of design 
those of Greece and Hindostan, and which to-day our artists and 
architects copy. 

We shall endeavor to associate the modern customs with the 
ancient, so as to make it agreeable as well as instructive. We 
dwell on the borders of a country where anciently a very high 
civilization existed. We speak of these lands thus far archse- 
ologically unexplored; and it may be that when properly ex- 

*The illustrations used in this article were made by the Heliotype Printing 
Company from copies by Mr. H. M. Stephenson, of Boston, Architect. 
10 



70 

aminerl we shall find that people who were far advanced in 
intellectual and scientific culture, lived thousands of years ago in 
places not yet penetrated among the forests in the unknown parts 
of the Colony of Belize. 

We shall ask you to accompany us in our travels among the 
ancient cities of Yucatan ; and when we speak of the people who 
inhabit the country to-day, we shall tell you the truth about their 
customs, their civilization, their physical and mental attainments. 
We hope that if there are any Yucatecos present, when we criti- 
cise what we believe should be criticised, they will not regard it 
as speaking ill of their country or of their people ; nor when we 
tell of their merits and virtues, look upon it as adulation. A's 
travellers, we must speak of things as they are. 

On the 29lh of July, 1.873, we left New York for Yucatan, on 
board the steamship " Cuba," of Alexandre & Sons, of Broadway, 
New York, owners of the line of steamers that run between New 
York and New Orleans, touching at Havana and the principal 
ports of the Mexican Gulf, carrying the Mexican mail to and from 
the United States. We were not sorry, on the 6th of August, 
two days after leaving the Island of Cuba, to cast anchor three 
miles from the shore in the roadstead of Progreso. Seen at that 
distance, Yucatan appeals a low, level plain, scarcely rising above 
the sea — not a hill, not even a hillock, to relieve the monotony of 
the landscape, or to intercept the line of the horizon. The first 
sound fi-om the land that reached our ear was the sharp, shrill call 
of the bugle — ill omen for the peace of the country. 

The custom-house boat soon drew up alongside of the " Cuba," 
and the health officers, with Mr. Martin Hatch, the American Con- 
sul, came on board. Mr. Hatch told us that the yellow fever was 
making havoc among the strangers in the Capital. He had just 
lost his father by it. The health officers also assured us that it 
was unusually severe that season among the people not acclimated. 
The Consul even advised us not to land, lest we should fall victims 
to the fever. We also learned from him that the country was in 
a state of revolution, and had been for some time past ; that en- 
counters were fi-equent between the troops of the revolutionary 
chief and the State and Federal troops. Notwithstanding this 
rather discouraging news, having started to see Yucatan, we left 
the steamer about 8 o'clock, A. M., on board a lighter. As the 



71 



weather was very calm, it took us three hours, under a scorching 
sun, to reach the land. At 1 1 o'clock we were on the wharf. We 




DOCK AND WHARF AT PROGRESO, PORT OF YUCATAN. 

started immediately in search of some breakfast; for on board 
they had neglected to give us any, in their hurry to discharge 
the living freight. Wading ankle-deep in the sand we reached 
a place called the Hotel Mendezona : a thatched hut of two 
rooms. Here breakfast was served in the fashion of the country, 
at a round table, where some of our fellow-passengers were 
already seated. 

Progreso was founded only a few years ago through political 
influence (and political influence is everything in Mexico), to the 
detriment of the real estate and house owners of the old Port of 
Sisal, that was from that time abandoned. Progreso, as a port 
of entry, has few advantages over Sisal, being an open roadstead 
that affords no shelter for shipping, and is even dangerous in the 
season of the northers. At the time of our arrival there were 
but few good buildings in the place. The wharf where we landed 
is a skeleton wooden wharf, built on piles. It is about one 
hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy feet long, and 



72 

about 40 feet wide, and is said to have cost 20,000 dollars. It 
would, however, be difficult to know, by its appearance, how the 
amount could have been expended in that work. Its construction 
was superintended by an American engineer, Mr. Alexander 
Stephens, who, about eighteen months ago, was murdered by the 
hostile Indians of Chan-Santa-Cruz, on his farm of Xuxuh, 
situated on the extremity of the north-east coast of the Peninsula 
of Yucatan, at a short distance from the Island Holbox. 

To the right of the wharf, about one hundred yards from the 
shore, stands the finest edifice in the town — the custom-house. 




CUSTOM-HOUSE AT PROGRESO, PORT OF YUCATAN. 

It is a two-storied stone building, with arcades on the ground 
floor, where are situated the storerooms, and the office of the 
Captain of the Port. The upper story is divided into a large 
room occupied by the desks of the clerks and difi"erent officers of 
the house, and the dwelling apartments of the administrator. 
This building is pretty and spacious. It is also said to have cost 
a large amount of money. On one side of this edifice, about one 
hundred yards back, are several large storerooms, and the Post- 
office. 

Beyond this there was then little to be seen. Since that time 



73 

many improvements have been made, and Progveso is now re- 
sorted to, in the summer months, by the ladies of Merida, as a 
watering place. The best bathing booth that existed at the time 
of our arrival, and until lately, belonged to Senor Alonzo Aspe, 
then the administrator of the custom-house. This gentleman, 
for whom we had a letter of introduction, received us with great 
hospitality. Hospitality is one of the leading traits of Yucatecan 
character. It is a particular blessing in a country where hotels 
are almost unknown. 

The Yankees are proverbially inquisitive ; we had just come 
from among them, and finding ourselves in the custom-house, 
we began, in the course of conversation, to ask questions about 
the country and its commerce. The principal article of export 
is the henequen or filament of the Sisal hemp (the Agam 
Sisalensis, an evergreen succulent plant, indigenous to Yucatan, 




A PLANT OF HENEQUEN (Agave Sisalensis). 
which bears a considerable resemblance to the plants of the 
genus aloe, with which it is sometimes confounded). This 
plant requiies little care, grows well in stony places, and scarcely 



74 

needs water. Yucatan is very stony, and as there are no rivers 
in the country, the agriculturist depends altogether on the rain 
for irrigating his fields. 

The leaf of the agave, which varies in length from two to five 
feet when mature, is the part of the plant that furnishes the fila- 
ment. There are three ways of scraping the leaf to obtain it. 
The one most in use is a machine moved by steam or horse 
power. It incurs so much waste of the filament, that last year, 
we are informed, the planters of Merida proposed to offer a 
reward of 20,0D0 dollars to any person who would improve the 
machine. 

The other two methods have been used by the natives from 

time immemorial. The first is with a Tonkos. A tonkos is a flat 

board of very hard wood, about a foot long, and four 

inches wide. The upper end, which is the thickest, is 

carved out to form a handle ; the lower end, thin and 

sharp, is scooped in the middle in shape of a crescent. 

This is the scraper. They place a leaf of the plant 

upon a round, straight stick, about an inch or an inch 

and a half in diameter. This is held in an oblique 

jDosition. After splitting the leaf lengthwise with the 

tonkos, into three or four parts, each piece is squeezed 

between the tonkos and the scraper, the man putting 

A Tonkos. all the weight of his body to increase the pressure. 

The filament obtained in this manner is the most appreciated. 

The second method is with the Pacte. It consists in laying 
the leaf upon a flat board about three feet long and eight inches 
wide, one end being placed on the ground and the other against 
the waist of the worker, who scrapes it with a piece of hard wood, 
made in the shape of a two-handled knife. By woiking hard, the 
best hand can only obtain twenty-five pounds of filament per day. 
He commences work at midnight, and ceases about 9 o'clock in the 
morning, when the sun is getting high, for the plant contains an 
acrid principle that, with the heat of the day, acts as an 
episj)astic. Hammocks, bags and cordage, all made of henequen, 
constitute, besides the filament, the chief articles of exportation; 
the making of them is therefore an important branch of industry 
in the country. 

To return to our narrative. We passed the day in the habita- 




75 

tion of the family of Senor Aspe, in the custom-house. It was 
mail day — we obtained seats in the coach for Meiida. At four 
o'clock it was at the door. Between the custom-house and the 
road there was a quantity of deep sand, and Senor Aspe was too 
polite to allow a lady to walk through it. 

Our conveyance was an old-fashioned, rickety carriage, that 
might well have belonged to our great-great grandfathers. At- 
tached to it were three tiny mules ; they looked quite incapable of 
getting their load out of the sand, much less of taking it to Merida, 
twenty four miles distant. Evidently they had resolved not to try 
it; for they kicked, jumped, turned and twisted in every direction 
but the right one. By dint of pushing the wheels from behind, 
dragging the beasts in front, and whipping them from above, we 
finally got into the road. Once fairly started they went with sur- 
prising rapidity ; not even slackening their speed, when they 
passed over a rustic bridge, made of loose boards placed on beams, 
constructed over the slough, at the entrance to the swamps behind 
the town. Nor did they once stop until we reached the relay. 
These mules, so puny in appearance, were far too strong and 
active for our comfort. When on board the " Cuba " we had 
looked to Yucatan for rest ; but now we wei'e, for the time being, 
worse off than ever. The road is cut through fields of henequen ; 
and it is not in many places that precaution has been taken to 
make it smooth. Since then a railway has been laid, and is oper- 
ated by horse-power. When we left Progreso it was about half 
completed. One year ago mules were yet used in place of the 
locomotive. Here and there, on either side of the road, tall chim- 
neys denote the establishments of planters. We thought at the 
time that no road could be worse than this, from the port to 
the capital of Yucatan ; but when we visited the eastern part of 
the state we had reason to change our opinion. To remain seated 
was quite out of the question ; we could only hold on to the 
leather straps, and patiently receive a shaking, which forcibly 
reminded us of a doctor's prescription, " when taken to be well 
shaken." 

We survived the twenty-four up-and-down miles, and entered 
the capital, well-nigh exhausted, between seven and eight o'clock 
in the evening. Even at that early hour all was silent, as if the 
city had been deserted. Moonlight lends enchantment to every- 



76 

thing, and smooths out rough places. When we passed the prin- 
cipal square all looked polished and beautiful. The shrubs and 
other plants, that adorn the central garden, seemed to be covered 




Casa del Gobierno (Government House), at M^rida, Yucatan, 

WITH A PORTION OF THE PlAZA DE LA InDEPENDENCIA, AND IN 
THE BACKGROUND ON THE RIGHT THE IGLESIA DE JeSUS. 

with frost. The cathedral on our left rose grand and gloomy. 
Opposite to it the arcade of the City Hall, and the ancient mansion 
of the Fathers of the Company of Jesus, looked imposing and 
brilliant. We told the coachman to drive to a hotel. There was 
only one — of course that was the best — the Hotel Meridiano. 
Thither we went. After taking supper in the public apartment — 
for the landlord, Francisco Lopez, a Spaniard, said there was no 
private dining room — we were conducted to a room. It contained 
two folding beds, closed all round with curtains, a large pine table 
and one or two chairs of the same material. Besides these articles 
there were mosquitoes enough to torment all the inhabitants of 
the city. From these the bed-curtains seemed to promise us a 
shelter. We prepared to avail ourselves of it ; but alas ! for our 



77 

expectations. Instead of a mattress to rest upon, we had only a 
piece of canvas stretched on the frame. 

The business of the next day was house-hunting, — not an easy 
task, for very little building is done in Meiida. 

Having made arrangements to visit the eastern part of Yucatan, 
we set out for Izamal. An epidemic of small-pox had broken out 
in Merida. Our friend, Dr. Don Liborio Irigoyen, then Governor 
of the State, asked us, as a favor, to dispense vaccine matter 
among the inhabitants of the places through which we were to 
pass. On the 3d of November he gave to Dr. Le Plongeon an 
official commission to that effect. He said that he could not send 
a physician for that purpose, as the treasury was exhausted. We 
complied with his request at our own expense. Our travelling 
carriage was a holatv-cochi. It is a two-wheeled vehicle resem- 
bling a van. A mattress is spread in the bottom, for the passen- 
gers to sit or lie upon, as may best please them. It will accom- 
modate six persons seated, or two lying at full length, Avhich is 
the most common way of travelling in the holan. Suspended 
upon leather straps, it is the only conyeyance suitable for the 
roads of Yucatan. Some are four-wheeled, but these are seldom 
used on account of the bad roads. They are drawn by three 
mules, which go at a dashing rate, at least for the fii'St few miles. 
The road between Merida and Izamal is one of the best in the 
State. About four miles from the capital, on the right-hand side 
going towards TixkoJcob, are to be seen a number of mounds in a 
ruinous condition. This is the site of the ancient village of Techoh, 
and the ruins show that once upon a time there existed a large 
villag:e. We have not examined these edifices, our attention not 
having been called to them until a very short time previous to 
our leaving Yucatan. The people of the country take but little 
interest in the remains of the monuments of the ancient inhab- 
itants. 

The first village that we reached was Tixpeual. It is composed 
of a few straggling houses, with thatched roofs, and some Indian 
huts, nestling among orchards. We passed through a long, irj-egu- 
lar street, the principal and only one, leading to a large square 
overrun with grass, where stands an old convent in a most ruinous 
condition, and a roofless church. The altar only is under a shed 
of palm leaves. Nominally, the Roman Catholic religion is that 
11 



78 

of the country; but since the laws of reform were first promul- 
gated under President Don Benito Juarez, when the property of 
the clergy was confiscated, many of the churches have fallen into 
ruin. Frequently the churches are sustained by the exertions of 
the priests alone, who are now, with but few exceptions, very 
poor. The people of the small towns take little pride in the 
appearance and preservation of their temples. 

At 2\x2yeual, the carriages coming from or going to Merida, 
generally stop to water their horses at a well by the roadside. 
The next town of importance is Tixkokob. At this place the 
Spaniards fought a hard battle with the Indians, under the com- 
mand of the Cocomes, princes of Sotuta. The historian says there 
were only two hundred Spaniards to forty thousand (?) Indians. 
This battle took place on Thursday, June 11th, 1541. A few 
months later the city of Merida was founded. Tlxkokoh is now the 
aristocratic village of Yucatan, so we were told. It is small, not 
over picturesque, but a well-kept and clean town. The church is 
large. The convent, now half ruined, attached to it, is occupied 
by our good friend, Dn. Pablo Ancona, the curate, to whose 
hospitality and kindness we owe much. To him also is due the 
re-edification, at his own expense, of the part now habitable. The 
village is surrounded by plantations of henequen. The principal 
industry of the place, among the poor, is hammock making. This 
is done for the most part by women and young girls, which latter 
I must say are very pretty. Besides the curate, we have there 
many good friends whom we remember with pleasure. 

About fifteen miles from Tixkokoh we passed the village of 
Cacalchen, once of some importance, if we might judge by the 
number of stone houses seen around the spacious square. It is 
now nearly deserted and lonely. 

This manner of travelling in our own carriage, passing through 
many unknown and strange looking places, stopping when and 
"wherever one feels inclined, is certainly more pleasant and full of 
interest than being carried at the rate of forty miles an hour in a 
railway car. The Indians alone, in their picturesque, unique cos- 
tume, were sufficient to rivet our attention. Then, too, the hedges 
were brilliant with convolvulus of various colors; rose-pink, sky- 
blue, rich purple, and pure white, mingling and entwining each 
other. Upon the ground, every here and there, were large groups 



79 

or patches of yellow butterflies that, iipon our approach, rose and 
fluttered around us. To give an idea of their number, we may 
say that we rode through clouds of them for miles. They were 
of the most brilliant hues. Indeed no country can surpass Yucatan 
in the beauty and variety of color of its flowers, insects and birds. 
We next traversed Mucuiche, a hamlet of a few scattered huts 
hidden among orchards, and then came to the village of Citilcum. 




Indian Hut in Yucatan, with Indian Laboreks at work. 

As we rode through it a storm was just breaking overhead ; yet 
notwithstanding a loud peal of thunder, we distinctly heard 
A, B, C, echoed by many youthful mouths. Looking towaiV ^he 
place from whence the sound came, we saw the village scV ^ol 
where the hopes of the villagers of both sexes wei'e learning the 
names of the letters, which they shouted out at the top of their 
voices, making rather a discordant than a harmonious noise. 
They stopped short of one accord at the rattle of wheels upon 
the stony road, stretching their necks and eyes to the utmost to 
get a peep at the travellers, and then, at the command of the 
Magister, in unison screamed again A, B, C. 



80 

At a very short distance from this place, on the left of 
the road, are to be seen the remnants of the magnificent ancient 
causeway, carefully built of hewn stone, cemented with mortar, 
which, at the time of the Spanish conquest, existed between 
Izamal and T.-H6 (Merida). A great part of this work has been 
thoroughly destroyed to obtain stones to macadamize the public 
road. 

We were six miles from Izamal, yet could plainly see, towering 
above all, the church that crowns the great mound of which we 
will speak anon. The rain continued to fall heavily until we were 
near the city, when the sun again shone forth in all its splendor ; 
so the bolan cocAe entered Izamal sparkling with rain-drops. We 
drove to a house that had been taken for us, and found to our dis- 
may that the floor of each room was abundantly adorned with 
little pools of water — unfortunate result of a shower of rain and a 
leaky roof. W^e had letters of recommendation to Seiior Don 
Joaquin Reyes, one of the principal merchants there. These we 
sent by our servant. In less than half an hour the carriage of 
Don Joaquin was at the door with a request from him for us 
to go immediately to his house. He did not allow us to return to 
our mansion of small lakes, but furnished one belonging to himself, 
and put it at our disposal, which proved to be much more comfort- 
able than the one rented for us. The friendship then shown by 
Senor Reyes and his amiable family has never changed. 

Izamal is not what it was some years ago, having been partly 
destroyed by the Indians at the time of their insurrection in 1847. 
Anciently it was celebrated for its temples where the people went 
in pilgrimage from all parts, even from the countiies now 
called Chiapas, Guatemala, and Tabasco, in olden times 
XihaXba. Four of the principal mounds yet remain. They sur- 
round the largest square. The smaller ones were destroyed for 
the purpose of building the city. That situated on the north side 
is an oblique pyramid, with a gradual ascent of broad steps on 
the south side, and a very steep, almost perpendicular one, on the 
north. Upon this mound, that is one hundred and fifty feet high 
from the base to the summit, a temple was raised in honor of 
Kinich-Kakmo. Kinich-Kakmo signifies fiery Ara, with eyes like 
the sun. The Ara, or Macaw, is of the parrot family, with a long 



81 

tail, very brilliant plumage, and a powerful beak. This bird 
inhabits the Antilles and the warmer parts of America. 




PUBLIC SQUARE, AT IZAMAL, YUCATAN, 

WITH ABTIFICIAL MOUND IN THE BACKGROUND. 

In our later studies among the ruins of Chichen, we have 
learned that the totem of the wife of the chieftain Chaacmol, 
queen of Chichen, was an Ara (Moo in the Maya tongue). The 
queen is represented on some of the monuments as an Ara eating 
human hearts. In the interior of the building that Kinich-Kakmo 
caused to be raised to the memory of Chaacmol, we find the his- 
tory of her life portrayed in mural paintings. She was graceful, 
beautiful, affectionate and brave ; and such was her goodness 
and virtue, that after her death the people deified her, as some 
of the nations of antiquity in the Old World deified their illus- 
trious personages. Her shrine was then built upon the mound on 
the north side of the square. It was said that always at mid-day 
Kinich-Kakmo descended from heaven in the form of an Ara, and 
burned the sacrifice offered on her altar. By a strange coinci- 
dence we read in the Bible of similar phenomena, taking place 
among the Jews, the fire from heaven coming to burn the ofier- 
ings on the altar. 



82 

The second mound, on the south side of the square, is very 
extensive. It was called by the Indians Ppapp-Hol-Chac, which 
means "Heads and thunder." Father Lizana, an historian of the 
time of the conquest, said that the word Ppapp-Hol Chac meant 
the mansion of the priests of the gods. This mound was occupied 
by the palaces of the priests, which were destroyed by Bishop 
Diego de Landa, who built in their place the church and convent 
of the Franciscan inonks, in order, says Cogolludo in Book V. of 
his '■^Historia de Yucataii" to drive away the devil with the sight 
of the holy habit of the friars, from a place which had been defiled 
by the presence of the priests of idols. To-day the convent is in 
a ruinous condition, but serves as a barracks, and occasionally as 
a penitentiary. Landa also destroyed the temples of the other 
mounds. On the east side of the square was a temple dedicated 
to Itzamatul, which means " he who receives and possesses the 
grace or dew from heaven." Tradition says that Zamna was 
the first King that ruled over Yucatan, and that he divided the 
lands, and gave names to the towns. During life he was con 
suited by the people, who wished to know what was taking place 
in remote parts. He also used to prophecy the things of the 
future. Accoi'ding to tradition, they carried the dead to him that 
he might bring them back to life. He healed the sick by the 
imposition of the hand. After his death they deified him and 
raised an altar in his honor. He was held in great veneration 
even at the time of the Spanish conquest. The people brought 
to his shrine their sick friends. These were carried to another 
temple, also dedicated to him, that occupied the west side of the 
square, and was called ICabul, that is to say, "the working-hand." 
People .went there in great numbers from all parts of the country, 
carrying presents and alms. 

Cogolludo, in the second chapter of the Vlth Book, tells us 
that Father Landa endeavored by all possible means to attract the 
Indians to the holy Catholic faith, and wean them from their idol- 
atrous rites. Seeing that they were accustomed to worship 
images, having destroyed theirs with his own hands, he resolved 
to replace them by one of the Virgin Mary. He made a voyage 
to Guatemala to obtain one from the chisel of a renowned sculptor, 
who resided there. As he was going, the Franciscan monks 



83 

asked him to bring another for their convent in Merida. 
The two images were obtained, put into one box, and, that they 
might not be injured, it was carried on the shoulders of Indians. 
On the way back it rained continually, but not on the box, nor 
upon those who carried it, nor even for some distance aroxmd 
them. Arrived at the city of Merida, the monks chose for their 
convent the image that had the prettiest face and most saintly 
expression. Although the other had been brought for the Indians, 
and was to be carried to Izamal, the people of Valladolid wanted 
it for the convent of that city, because, said they, it is not just 
that it should remain in an Indian village. The Indians opposed 
this as they could ; but what the Spaniards wished began to be 
put in execution. All in vain, however ; no human strength 
could move it from Izamal. So, to the delight of the Indians and 
admiration of the monks, the image was placed in the convent of 
that city. Cogolludo goes on to tell of the wonderful and numer- 
ous miracles performed by Our Lady of Izamal, in healing the 
sick and raising the dead. Even to-day they are said to be per- 
formed, and her shrine is a place of pilgrimage for the people 
of Yucatan, notwithstanding that the original image was 
destroyed some years ago in the burning of the church, and 
replaced by another, as stated on a marble slab at the principal 
entrance of the church. Landa destroyed the idols that healed 
the sick and raised the dead, putting that of the Virgin Mary 
in their place, and the same miracles have continued. The 
image, however, that had remained at Merida effected nothing. 

The Indian, the mixed or Mestizo race, and even some of the 
uneducated white, are firm believers in witchcraft, and practice 
many superstitious rites. In name they are Catholic, but in name 
only, and because they have been driven to it. Cogolludo says 
in the 17th chapter of his IV th Book, that those Indians who 
failed to attend mass were flogged ; and we know from good 
authority that only thirty years ago those Indians who entered 
the church late were whipped at the door. 

Throughout Yucatan, when the Indians or Mestizos suffer from 
a disease they do not understand, they are often said to be, and 
really imagine themselves bewitched, and that this or that 
medicine man (H-Men) can cure them by destroying the sorcery. 
The medicine man is generally an Indian who pretends to a great 



84: 

knowledge of medicinal herbs ; and who, in fact, has an insight 
into the use of some few, having received the instruction from 
his jjarents, who have, in their turn, received it from theirs. It is 
easy to comprehend how different may be the knowledge of the 
medicine man of to day from that possessed by his forefathers, 
when we consider that it has been passed to him only by word of 
mouth. The ancient H.-Men (wise man) was, possibly, a 
sage of great learning, but the H-Men of to day is a trickster and 
impostor. Nevertheless, many Indians have a profound faith iu 
his power and wisdom, so he is called to the aid of the bewitched. 
The rogue, uttering cabalistic words, goes under the bed or ham- 
mock to dig up the figure of the person that has done the mischief. 
This, at least, is what he pretends. Of course, he has some little 
figure hidden about him ; he feigns scraping the floor, generally 
mere earth among the poor Indians, and soon presents an image 
said to be a likeness of the j^erson who has bewitched the patient. 
For this he receives a fee, and takes his departure amid the thanks 
of his wondering dupes. The patient remains, of course, neither 
better nor worse for the ceremony, unless his faith be great and 
the disease half fanciful. 

I copied an old manuscript, written in the Spanish language, 
and in very bad grammar, that I found in Isla Mujeres, where it 
is venerated and fii-mly relied upon as the most complete work on 
medicine. It is called the " Book of the Few." Why, I have 
not been able to discover. I was told by several persons that this 
same manuscript serves in lieu of a physician in some parts of 
Yucatan. When in Yalladolid, Yucatan, we heard it spoken of 
in very flattering terms. The following is a quotation : — 

Cure for the Bewitched. — " First take a root of vervain, cook 
it in wine, and give it to the patient to drink. It will be vomited. 
To know if the person is bewitched, pass a branch of skunk plant 
over him. If the leaves become purple the person is bewitched. 
To be freed from the enchantment wear a cross, made from the 
root of the skunk plant, around the neck." 

This is a sample of the many absurdities found in that old 
manuscript. 

We were in Izamal in the month of December. On the 8th 
the festival of Our Lady of Izamal is celebrated. A large fair is 



85 

held, to which the merchants, not only of Yucatan, but also from 
the neighboring States, flock, as in olden times, if not to pay their 
respects at the shrine of the Virgin, to worship at the altar of 
Mercury. The people go thither to kneel before the image 
already mentioned, and to pass three days as merrily as possible. 
In the morning there are processions to the shrine of Our Lady. 
Mass is celebrated at eleven o'clock. From church the congrega- 
tion goes straightway to the bull-fight. 

A bull-fight in Yucatan is not like a bull-fight in Spain. The 
ring is built by the principal families of the village, each lending 
servants to erect a part of it. It is a double palisade, sustaining 
sheds, covered with leaves of the palmetto, that are divided into 
boxes. Every one provides a chair for himself The best and 
worst, large and small, all attend. 

There are but few men, if any, who give themselves at all to 
the study of tauromachy. Many enter the ring perfectly ignorant 
of all rules by which they might escape the fury of the animal. 
It was customary among the ancient people of Yucatan to sacrifice 
their lives as an ofiering to the deity for any benefit received. This 
is yet openly practised among the Indians, but in such manner as 
not to pass for human sacrifice. If an Indian desires any particu- 
lar thing he begs it from his patron saint, and, to show his grati- 
tude, promises in return to fight the bull, or to keep himself intoxi- 
cated for a certain number of days, or to perform some other rash 
deed. Well, he knows nothing about bull-fighting. To enter 
the ring and confront the animal is about as sure a death for him 
as being shot at by arrows, as was customary for the victims 
that offered themselves in the olden times. With an Indian 
about to enter the arena I once remonstrated, but the only answer 
given to all argument and persuasion was '■'• In promesa^ Colel" 
(my promise. Lady). Nothing could shake his resolution; he 
complied with his promise, and was carried away mortally 
wounded. The ring is occupied by six or more Indians on foot. 
Some young men of the city who wish to display their horseman- 
ship enter mounted. Of those on foot some are provided with a 
pole about three feet long, having a sharp iron head like that of 
an arrow, called rejon. Others have merely a sack made of hene- 
quen. This serves them as a shield against the bull. Certainly 
they, at times, show ra-uch courage and have very narrow escapes. 
12 



86 

When the people tire of seeing the bull played with, they call for 
the rejoneros. Those who have already performed now stand 
aside, and the rejoneros, that is, the men provided with spears, 
come forward. Tlieir business is to strike the bnll in the nape of 
the neck and kill him. If the blow is well given the animal at 
once falls dead, but this is seldom the case. The beast is chased 
by two or three men at once, blow after blow is dealt ; the blood 
gushing afresh each time. The first blow makes it furious; it is 
then dangerous for the pursuers, but the loss of blood soon 
weakens it, and it becomes almost harmless. The horsemen are 
then called upon to lasso, drag it off, and bring in another. 
Rockets are fired, the people applaud, the band plays, and a clown 
does his best to amuse the audience dming the interval. If a bull 
is disinclined to fight, they girt his body with ropes in every pos- 
sible way, and fasten fire-crackers to his tail and about the head 
and back. Thus aggravated the poor beast jumps and the fire- 
crackers explode. This renders him furious for a minute or so. 
If again he refuses to fight he is taken away as a coward not 
worth killing. Such is the bull-fight in some of the villages of 
Yucatan. 

Nearly all the religious festivals outside of the larger towns are 
attended with bull-fights, gambling and fireworks, and, as of old, 
inebriation. Apart from the festivals of the church, the Indians 
have many ceremonies of their own that their forefathers prac- 
tised. They regard them with far more veneration than those 
forced upon them by the priests. One of these rites is the Mzmeek 
Naylan, or the act of placing the child, when four months old, 
astride the hip of a woman chosen for the occasion. She repre- 
sents for them the godmother, ixomNaylan (godmother.) These 
godmothers faithfully keep their promise to biing up the child, 
if the parents are removed fiom it. The child, and its mother, 
both have a great respect for her, the little one being taught to 
kiss her hand when she approaches it. The ceremony is as fol- 
lows : After the child is placed astride of the hip, the woman 
walks round the outside of the house five times with the baby. 
Five eggs are buried in hot ashes, that they may there break, and 
the child thus have its five senses awakened. If the eggs do not 
bieak readily, it is a sure sign that the children will not be very 
intelligent. If they wish it to write well, they place a pen in its 



87 

hand during the ceremony ; to read well, a book ; to work in the 
fields, a machete (a long knife generally used by the natives). 

This rite causes us to remember a very touching Hindoo anec- 
dote that we have read in the life of the Prince Sidharna, son ot 
Maya Devi, the beautiful illusion. He retired from the court when 
yet young, and became Budha, the founder of Budhism, which 
sect is to Brahmanism, as Christianity to Judaism. A young 
woman having lost her only child thought herself most unjustly 
treated. She went to Budha to ask him to bring it back to life. 
Budha promised so to do if she would bring him five grains of 
mustard seed from the hands of some one who had lost no 
relative, no friend. The woman went rejoicing from door to door 
with the child astride upon her hip. She failed to find any one 
who had lost neither friend nor relative. Then she comprehended 
that she was not exempt from the general law of death, and went 
back repentant to Budha, who pardoned her. Ever after, she 
remained with him and became a sainted person. 

This shews that the custom common in Yucatan, of carrying 
children astride the hip, existed likewise in Hindostan at the time 
that Budha lived ; that is to say, more than five thousand years 

ago. 

As we have said that the Indians of Yucatan believe in witch- 
craft, we will tell you how Dr. Le Plongeon acquired the reputa- 
tion of a wizard. It was said that several persons had wished to 
enter the great artificial mound raised to Kinich-Kakmo, the late 
Abbe Bi-asseur de Bourbourg among others, but as yet none had 
succeeded. Everybody considered the feat, if not impossible, 
at least very dangerous, as there might be snakes lurking there, 
and other venomous reptiles, with which the country abounds. 
Dr. Le Plongeon decided to enter if possible, as his examination 
of the mouud had persuaded him that it must contain interior 
chambers. He was fortunate enough to find a small opening on 
the eastern side. After penetrating ten yards, he found a dry stone 
wall blocking the way. To the right he perceived, by the light 
of his candle, a small aperture. He made his way through this. 
Crawling on about fifteen yards among immense blocks of hewn 
stone that form the foundation of the mound, he found that there 
was no entrance in that direction. Returning, he felt a strong 
current of air that seemed to come through the stone wall. He 



88 

came to the conchision that there was the road he sought. He had 
an order from the Governor of the State, to ask the Jefe Politico, 
or magistrate, for help. This he did, requesting him to lend 
four prisoners from the penitentiary, as no free working men 
could be induced to venture, much less to work, under the 
mound. The men were given, and an opening was made in the 
wall. This took nearly a whole day, as there was little space 
for working. The next day the magistrate offered all kinds of 
excuses not to lend the men again. The Doctor, however, 
went to the mound in company with Dr. Don Braulio Mendez 
and Don Joaquin Reyes. The gentlemen entered as far as 
the wall, but left Dr. Le Plongeon to continue his explorations 
through the opening made by the prisoners. The passage was 
exceedingly small, being half filled up with loose earth. He took 
a string between his teeth, to signal if anything should befall 
him, and penetrated, by the light of a candle, about twenty-five 
yards in a westerly direction, crawling on the ground, with his 
back scraping the roof Reaching the end of the passage, he 
found a place where lie could sit upright. At the left-hand side 
was an opening almost blocked up with earth that had sifted 
between the stones. It left an aperture of about a foot and a 
half. Here the shoulders would not pass ; but looking through, 
he saw a kind of chamber, an*^, on the south side, the doorway 
of a subterranean passage, leading south towards the mound upon 
which the church stands. A stiong current of air blew through 
the passage. There is no doubt that from time immemorial com- 
munication has existed between the two mounds. There ended 
the exploration in that direction for the time being. 

Among the Indians and Mestizos a strange tradition is current 
and firmly believed. It is, that under the mound is a large pool 
of crystalline water ; and, standing in the middle, a beautiful 
image of a woman, so resplendent and shining that it illuminates 
the whole place. But as in our modern times no one has entered 
into the interior, we must accept the existence of an image there 
as a possibility, for the Indians were in the habit of burying 
under these pyramids the effigies of their honored rulers, as the 
Egyptians the mummies of theirs. The visit of the doctor to 
the mound gave rise to the following ludicrous incident : — A mis- 
chievous cat, poking his nose where he had no business, threw 



89 

down a bottle containing a solution of nitrate of silver. To repair 
the damage the doctor set to work to make some more, and for 
that purpose dissolved some Spanish coin in nitric acid. Having 
precipitated the pure silver in the form of chloride, in order to 
separate it from the alloy of copper, he converted the chloride 
into black oxide, which very much resembles loam. In order to 
get rid of the little zinc it might yet contain, he sent it, well 
washed and dried, to the silversmith to have it melted, little 
dreaming of the inference that would be drawn. Our servant 
was a Mexican soldier of the Pioneer regiment, accustomed to a 
strict discipline, and to comply therefore with the orders he 
received, he took the oxide of silver to the best silversmith and 
requested him to melt it. The smith having examined the stuff, 
became enraged at the idea that any one should take him for a 
fool, and wish to play him a practical joke, and asked the soldier 
what he meant by requesting him to waste his time trying to melt 
earth under the pretence that it was silver. The soldiei" merely 
replied that such were his orders, that he knew nothing else, and 
begged him to do it. After much pourparler, the smith at last 
took a small quantity of the sttcjf that he believed to be earth, 
placed it uj^on a piece of charcoal and with his blowpipe directed 
a flame upon it. When lo ! to his astonishment, a globule of 
bright silver appeai'ed in lieu of- the supposed earth. Then a 
lucid idea crossed his brain. " Oh !" said he, "I now know why 
that foreigner, your master, went under the mound. He knew 
that the earth there was pure silver, and went for that." The 
worthy man refused to melt the rest lest it might be bewitched. 
This took place on a Saturday morning. On Munday we learned 
that very early on the previous day, Sunday, the smith, with some 
of his companions, had proceeded to the mound, entered it, not 
without fear and trembling, and filled some large bags with loam. 
This was carried to the forge, and he passed the day trying to 
obtain silver by blowing upon it, but alas ! without success. 

When this story was told to us, the Doctor thought it would 
be well to push the joke a little farther. So he took a small 
quantity of solution of nitrate of silver and poured into it a solu- 
tion of common salt. You are aware that the result of this 
mixture is a white precipitate of chloride of silver, which when dry, 
resembles lime. Having obtained this, the Doctor sent it to the 
silversmith to have it melted. After much hesitation he sub- 



90 



mitted it to the magic action of the blowpipe flame. The globule 
of silver again made its appearance. " Ah ! " said he, angrily, 
" now I understand the whole thing, and why we worked all 
yesterday, and burned so much coal for nothing. Your master 
knew that we were going to the mound, and by his power of 
witchci'aft, changed the loam into saccab " (white earth). 

From that time Dj-. Le Plongeon passed for a great wizard and 
enchanter among the lower classes of Izamal. 

Merida, the capital of Yucatan, was founded on the site of the 
ancient city of T.-Ho, in the year 1542, by Don Francisco de 
Montejo, Lieutenant-Governor and Captain-General, son of Don 
Francisco de Montejo, the Adelantado, Governor and Chief 
Justice for the Provinces of Yucatan and Cozumel. 




Casa del Adelantado Montejo, on the Plaza de la Independencia, 
AT Merida, Yucatan. 

The Spaniards built their first houses in the style of the natives. 
Afterwards they destroyed the artificial mounds that surrounded 
the place where the principal square now is, to use the stones for 
building the city, commencing at that point. The first house 
built under the direction of Montejo yet stands on the south 



91 

side of the square. It is a curious combination of Spanish and 
Indian work. Prominent among the ornaments on the facade 
are Spaniards standing upon prostrate Indians (sad emblem of the 
social position of the poor Indian of to-day). 

The City Hall occupies the central part of the west side of the 
square, between the dwelling of Don Bernado Peon and the 
ancient mansion of the Jesuit Fathers. It is a long two-storied 
building, with an arcade running the whole length on the ground 
and upper floor, where are the Council Chambers and oflice of the 
City Treasurer. Below are the barracks of the National Guard, 
police station, city jail, and office of the magistrate. A turret rises 
from the centre of the building, and in front is the city clock, 
which announces to the inhabitants that their life on earth is 
shortened by an hour. Under it, on a maible plate, is the date of 
the erection of the building in letters said to be of pxu'e gold. 




Casa Municipal (City Hall) with a poetion op the Plaza de la 
Independencia, at MliKiDA, Yucatan. 

The Bishop's palace and the cathedral adjoin each other, and 
occupy the eastern side of the square. The cathedral is a massive- 
looking monument, of imposing proportions. On the noi'th are 



92 

the government offices and some private property. The middle 
of the square is laid out as' a flower garden. This is the prome- 
nade of the ladies, particularly on Sunday and Thursday evenings, 
when the orchestra performs there. 




LA CATEDRAL, AT MfiRIDA, YUCATAN, 
ON THE Plaza de la Independencia. 

The prettiest spot in Merida is the jPlaza de Jesus, or Jesus 
square.* It is a small enclosure, with an Italian marble fountain 
in the centre, patches of ground laid out as flower beds, and an 
abundance of elegant iron seats. The walks are paved with 
marble, and over all trees wave their green foliage. Formerly the 
orchestra played there, but it was abandoned for the larger 
square, not being spacious enough for all the people to enter the 
garden. This is enclosed by an iron railing, and only opened to 
the public at certain hours. A few days after our arrival we went 

* See full-page illustration of Parque Hidalgo (formerly called Plaza de 
Jesus), facing page 69. 



93 

to that place to listen to the music, and we almost imagined our- 
selves upon enchanted ground. The band was excellent ; Maestro 
Cuevas was director, and the opera of Semiramis was well exe- 
cuted. The atmosphere was soft and balmy ; and how graceful 
were the ladies ! Dressed, nearly all of them, in white, they 
glided, rather than walked, to the compass of the harmonious 
sounds. We have never seen any people move as gracefully as 
do the Yucatecan ladies ; this walk is not studied, but natural to 
them. Their harmonious, amiable character shows itself in their 
way of walking. This scene was yet more enhanced by the pale 
moon that shed her silvery light over all. That evening will 
always be remembered by me, for before morning I was prostrated 
with yellow fever. I passed through that illness in the Hotel 
Mei-idiano, attended by Dr. Le Plongeon, who patiently fulfilled 
the duties of nurse and physician with the most assiduous care, 
not sleeping, during seven days, more than an hour in every 
twenty-four, as we had been assured that no stranger attacked 
with the fever that year had escaped death. 

The streets of the city of Merida are laid out at right angles. 
They are wide, and paved in the dry season with dust — when it 
rains, carpeted with mud, and adorned with innumerable pools of 
water, that almost interrupt pedestrian travel. Besides the Flaza 
Mayor, there are about fourteen or fifteen smaller squares, and on 
each a church. 

The market-place is in the centre of the city. It is poorly pro- 
vided. Everything, except the meat, is sold on the ground, 
generally spread out on clean, white cloths, or large plantain 
leaves placed on the flagstones. The venders squat in i*ows 
beside their wares, which are sold in very small proportions. To 
a stranger it is a novel and pretty sight, on account of the pic- 
turesque costumes of the Indians. 

The houses are generally one story high, though there are some 
handsome two-story dwellings. The apartments are spacious and 
lofty, but seldom elegant. Some of the buildings have interior 
court-yards adorned with flowers. 

The only theatre looks rather unattractive outwardly. It has 

been proposed to pull down the Castle of San Benito, and build a 

new theatre in its place. It would be regretted, for the fortress 

of San Benito, and ex -convent of the Franciscan friars, is a his- 

13 



94 




House of Senor Dario Galera, on the Plaza de la Independencia, 
AT M£rida, Yucatan. 

torical monument that ought to be preserved. It stands on the 
eastern side of the city, and occupies the elevated site of a magnifi- 
cent temple of the ancient inhabitants. Bishop Landa in his work, 
" Las Cosas de Yucatan,'^ has given a description, and preserved 
the plan of it. To-day the convent is in ruins. The church 
attached to it serves as barracks for the federal troops stationed 
in Merida. Some part of the building has been re-erected to 
serve as a penitentiary. Many of the cells have been purposely 
pulled down by the federal soldiers, to use the material for build- 
ing an almshouse and free school for the poor, but a change of 
government prevented the completion of the project. Some of 
the interior decorations yet remain upon the old walls of the con- 
vent, though the roof has fallen. We have seen the remnants of 
the ancient monument spoken of by Landa, which, according 
to Father Cogolludo, supported the cells of the second story of 
the convent. As a fortress, the building would yet do good 
service. 



95 




Court- Yard of the House ok Dona Bruna Galera de Casares, at 
MAkida, Yucatan, with Servants variously employed. 

The society of Moricla is pleasing. Even the poorest classes are 
well-mannered and refined. They will give all they have to 
receive a visitor kindly. There is little vice in the city ; violent 
crimes, such as theft and murder, are almost unheard of in the 
country. The gentlemen are very polite, and, as a rule, well 
informed, well educated, and very intelligent. 

The ladies are very much retired. Some only leave their 
houses to attend church. In appearance some are beautiful, but 
all are graceful and none ugly. They are fond of music, and have 
a natural talent for it. Some are very skilful at making sugar 
flowers, fruits and vegetables. We have seen these fabricated 
with such perfection, that, being close to them, and even having 
them in the hand, it was difficult to persuade ourselves that they 
were not the real thing. The taste alone can undeceive ; it is as 



96 



pleasing as the appearance. In dress the ladies follow the Euro- 
pean fashions. 

The Mestizas and Indians always retain their most picturesque 
ancient national costume. The Indian woman's dress is of white 
linen. The under part is a full skirt called pic, made long enough 
to escape the ground ; the upper, called uijyil, falls over it to the 
knees. This consists of a single piece that requires no fastening ; 
it is cut square at the neck. Nothing can be prettier than a 
young Mestiza in holiday attire — her ^>ic and uipil both edoed 
with colored embroideiy and deep lace, made by the natives; her 
feet encased in dainty satin slippers — around her neck a gold 
rosary, from which depend coins of the same metal, and ribbons 
of various hues. Her bearing is that of a princess; a modest 




MESTIZA SERVANTS IN YUCATAN, 

KNGAGED IN MAKING TORTILLAS, OK INDIAN CORN CAKES. 

one withal, though conscious of her bewitching appearance, which 
is yet more enhanced if she carries a basket of flowers, gracefully 



97 

poised upon the tips of her fingers and raised to the level of her 
head to shade her face from the sun. The Meslizas of Merida are 
renowned for their beauty, and with good reason. Their ordinary 
head-dress is a white lace veil, and when they dance they wear a 
hat trimmed with ribbons and flowers. Their hair is either worn 
in two plaits, or fastened in a peculiar knot, called a Tmh, that 
falls upon the back of the neck. The costume of the men recalls 
most forcibly to the mind the dress worn by the workmen of 
Assyria and Egypt, as shown ou the mural paintings of the tombs 
of Egypt, and the bas-reliefs on the slabs of Nineveh. 

Merida has a musical academy, where m.usic is well studied and 
carefully performed. There is also an amateur theatrical society 
among the youth of the city, which certainly performs far better 
than the travelling companies that visit Yucatan. 

There are two lai-ge colleges. One, "-M Coleglo CatoUco,'' in 
the Flaza de Jesus, is the private property of Father Dominguez. 
It is exceedingly well kept. They have classes for primary edu- 
cation and the higher branches of learning. Tlieology, and all 
other studies necessary to those who wish to enter the priesthood, 
are taught. It has a good library, and a department of chemistry 
and natural philosophy, well supplied with good instruments ; 
also an astronomical and meteorological observatory, where the 
director, Father Dominguez, takes observations every day, that 
are published in the '' Bevista de Merida" The other, at a 
short distance from the Flaza de Jesus, is the '■'■ Instituto 
Literario," an establishment belonging to the Government. 
In it all branches of education are taught, including medicine 
and jurisprudence. Two large apartments of this building- 
were ceded in the year 1871 to serve as a museum for antiquities, 
under the direction of Senor Don Crecencio Carillo Ancona, a 
Presbyter, who has taken a true interest in the archaeology of that 
country and has dedicated many hours of his life to its ancient 
history. This museum contains pieces of antique sculpture, plas- 
ter casts, pottery, some Maya manuscripts, objects of natural his- 
tory, and samples of various woods of the country. There are 
also several public schools. These, under the supervision of the 
Common Council, are very well conducted. The children are 
what the Americans would call " smart." Tliey progress with 
astonishing rapidity in all the studies they are put to. A few 



^Q^ IS? i"/^ 




98 

years ago. there being no proper school for girls, two ladies, Dona 
Rita Cetina Gutierez and Doiia Cristina Farfan, undertook to 
establish one for those of poor families, calling it the -'■Siempre 
Viva " (Evergreen). It is, to-day, by the eiforts of those ladies, 
in a most flourishing condition. 

Formerly there was an hospital near the centre of the city ; the 
old convent of the Mejorada serves now for that purpose. This 
hospital, until the middle of 1876, was under the care and super- 
intendence of the Sisters of Charity ; but at the time of the pro- 
mulgation of the laws of reform, these ladies abandoned it, no 
longer being permitted to dwell in the community. It contains 
an asylum for the insane. At the time of our departure from 
Merida the hospital was under the direction of our friend. Dr. 
Sauri, a very able physician, who served in the United States as 
surgeon during the war, in the army of the Potomac, and went 
afterwards to France and Geimany to complete his medical 
studies. He is a true lover of his profession. 

Merida boasts of several private open carriages, and some very 
fine horses imported from Europe and the United States. The 
vehicle generally in use is called a caleza. It is similar to the 
old-fashioned chaise. Two people may sit in it comfortably, and 
three upon an emergency. It is drawn by one horse, which the 
driver rides. This conveyance is supported on broad leather 
straps, and the motion is very easy. 

Several newspapers are published ; some three times a Aveek, 
others twice only. " J^l Per^iodico Ojicial" or " Z,a Razon del 
Pueblo^' is the organ of the Government ; "Xa Mevista de Merida" 
that of the commercial community ; "_£7 Fensatniento^' of the 
Masonic society ; and '•''El Mensaje^'o" of the clergy. Other small 
sheets are issued occasionally by the Spiritualists and other "-ists," 
as this or that opinion is most prevalent. One of them, called 
"Xa Xey de Amor " (The Law of Love), is a Spiritualist paper, 
against which ^'jEI Artesano" an ultra-montane sheet, is issued. 



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